Political Quotes

“I am deeply troubled by this report, as it underscores a critical need for this Congress to modernize Medicare to include a prescription drug benefit. Spending on retail outpatient prescription drugs rose almost 19 percent in 2000, from $111 billion to $131.9 billion. Approximately half of that spending increase can be attributed to just 23 prescription drugs or pharmaceuticals. Among those drugs are the blockbuster ones we hear about, Vioxx, Lipitor, Celebrex and Glucophage, which I am not pronouncing correctly, but the very drugs that seniors rely on every day to treat chronic long-term illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis or high cholesterol. In fact, my mother-in-law, of those four drugs, actually takes three of them every day. For the seniors that have no prescription drug coverage, they simply have no choice but to pay top dollar for these expensive medications or go without; and that is what they are doing every day, they are going without, because they cannot afford them.”