Richard Burr: “I sometimes wonder if in 1960 when Medicare was created, whether they knew we would be here at some point in the future.…”

“I sometimes wonder if in 1960 when Medicare was created, whether they knew we would be here at some point in the future. The fact was that drug benefits were not part of the insurance package for the private sector or for any entity, and if they would have been, I am sure that those individuals who were in this institution would have included a drug package in Medicare as we know it today. But the fact is, they did not. In the last 30 to 40 years, we have seen significant change since Medicare happened. There has not only been change in the delivery system, it has been changed in the treatment methods that physicians use; there have been changes in the devices that hospitals are able to use for treatment; and there has certainly been change in the pharmaceutical world, which I call the high-tech end of medicine. As we discover new things that treat specific illnesses, that up until yesterday we might have thought were uncurable or uncontrollable, that is the era that we are in. The debate in Washington is not over whether we extend a drug benefit to individuals who make choices between food and drug. It is a philosophical debate in Washington over who we are going to offer a drug benefit to.”