Frank Pallone: “the biggest problem with lack of coverage today is prescription drugs. As the gentleman from Ohio mentioned, the…”

“the biggest problem with lack of coverage today is prescription drugs. As the gentleman from Ohio mentioned, the Republican leadership is not doing anything about the cost. The biggest concern that my constituents tell me is that they cannot afford the price of drugs. What is the Republican leadership doing about it? Absolutely nothing. Their proposal to address the prescription drug issue is simply a sham. First of all, it is not under Medicare. Medicare needs to be expanded so that everyone who is eligible for Medicare gets a prescription drug benefit guaranteed, and they know what the benefit is. What the Republican leadership is saying is we are going to send some money out to private insurance companies or to the States, and we hope that Americans can take this voucher, and if they are low income, they can find some insurance company to give a drugs-only policy to cover prescription drugs. They are assuming that the only people that are going to be able to take advantage of it are very low-income people, about 6 percent of the senior population. And even those will not be able to take advantage because the insurance companies have said they will not sell these prescription drug medicine-only policies. Madam Speaker, what we need is to expand Medicare for all seniors so they all get a prescription drug benefit, and it has to be a generous benefit.”