Frank Pallone: “I realize that they are well motivated and have the best of intentions in trying to put forward this prescription drug…”

“I realize that they are well motivated and have the best of intentions in trying to put forward this prescription drug discount card program, but I have to say that I never believed it would work or accomplish anything to help seniors with their drug prices. Certainly what has happened today and the fact that so few seniors have signed up is a strong indication that it is unlikely to be effective and that it is unlikely to even be tried by most of America's seniors because they realize it is not really going to do much in terms of offering them discounts or providing lower prescription drug costs. I think AARP was quoted in The New York Times today saying that they only had 400 seniors nationwide from the membership of their organization that had signed up for the prescription drug cards. Their card. What is that, about, I do not know, five or so per State? It is unbelievable how few. Overall, I think there was another group that said about a thousand seniors had signed up for their card. Most of the other card sponsors would not even give out numbers. But it is clear very few seniors are signing up for it.”