Glenn English: “the House is on the brink of considering a very important issue, one that matters to people in my district in…”

“the House is on the brink of considering a very important issue, one that matters to people in my district in northwestern Pennsylvania and to all users of the Medicare program throughout the United States, whether they are seniors or individuals with disabilities. We are talking, of course, about the bipartisan effort to revise the Medicare program and to include prescription drugs. My intention tonight, along with a couple of my colleagues, is to clear away the partisan smoke, to clear away the rhetoric, and to focus on what is really being proposed and the potential for a true bipartisan approach to extending prescription drugs under the Medicare program. Mr. Speaker, modern medicine is using drug therapies more and more to prevent and treat chronic health problems. This is the 21st century. A trip to the pharmacy is far better than a trip to the operating room. We no longer practice medicine as our grandfathers or even our fathers once experienced, nor should we continue to offer seniors the limited Medicare program that our grandfathers and fathers knew. We need to revise the program and expand it and rethink it. Medicare is, essentially, a standard benefit program from the 1960s, and it needs a facelift.”