Political Quotes

“I believe--I say this not only as a Senator but also as a physician who has personally taken care of thousands and thousands of Medicare patients--that prescription drugs absolutely must be a part of our Medicare program and system if we are going to really provide health care security for our seniors. The challenge we have is that, indeed, prescription drugs replace the surgeon's knife--which I have used my entire adult life--and replace the hospital bed, which are important dynamics of health care. But the real challenge we have is including that new additional benefit--which, traditionally, over the last several years has been 17 to 18 percent a year--into a rigid, inflexible, outdated Medicare program that we have not been able to reform. The challenge before this Congress is to very thoughtfully incorporate prescription drugs coupled with true Medicare reform, to bring it up to date, to modernize it in a way that we can truly guarantee health care security to our seniors.”