Political Quotes

“2 weeks ago, at a health care forum I sponsored in Virginia, a doctor told me of a woman with breast cancer splitting her Tamoxofin pills with two other breast cancer patients, because the drug was so expensive that the other two couldn't afford it. This is a touching story from the perspective of a woman trying to help two peers, but from a health care perspective, it's an abomination. Not only does splitting a dose for one person into three negate the effects of the drug for all three women, but the lack of access to this drug only makes them sicker. Unfortunately, stories like these are all too common today. Modern medicine has become more and more dependent on prescription drugs, yet the Medicare program, which provides health care for our nation's elderly and disabled, has not changed with the times. As a result, Medicare often finds itself in the position of paying for expensive hospital care, yet not paying for the prescription drugs that could help keep a patient out of the hospital. And as prescription drugs become more essential to seniors' health care, we hear many stories like the one I've told you today. It's time we did something to change this. While over 90 percent of private sector employees with employer-based health insurance have prescription drug coverage, the 38 million Medicare beneficiaries in America today have no basic prescription drug benefit.”