Political Quotes

“for many months now, I and other Members of this body have been coming to the floor to talk about the need for prescription drug coverage for our older people under Medicare. I have brought to the floor on more than 20 occasions specific cases of older people who, in so many instances, are walking an economic tightrope, trying to balance their food costs against their prescription drug bill, their prescription drug bill against some other necessity. More and more of these older people and their families simply cannot make ends meet. I wish to address the question of whether this country can afford to cover prescription drugs for older people under Medicare. I submit this Nation cannot afford not to cover these essential health care services. We talked on the floor about the important drugs such as Lipitor, a cholesterol-lowering drug used by many older people. These drugs are absolutely key to keeping older people well. There is no question that right now if the Government were to pick up the costs of these medicines there would be additional costs, but the savings generated as a result of extending prescription drug coverage to older people, in my view, would be staggering. I continually cite the exciting contributions made by these new medicines that prevent strokes. They are known as anticoagulant drugs.…”