Bob Wise: “I am concerned about the hundreds of thousands of rural West Virginians earning $12,000, $15,000 a year, sometimes less…”

“I am concerned about the hundreds of thousands of rural West Virginians earning $12,000, $15,000 a year, sometimes less than that, and that is why I am voting for a bill, the substitute, that would extend the Medicare program as we already know it. We know it, it has worked, let us have a prescription drug benefit. I am voting against the Republican bill, however, that would simply put this into the hands of the private insurance agencies, private insurance industry that says they do not want it. It would put it into the hands of private HMOs that are not functioning in rural States. I am voting for a bill that would provide real prescription drug coverage. I will not vote for a bill that will deny almost 300,000 senior citizens, many of them in rural areas, true coverage. At a time when senior citizens need real medicine, strong medicine, the Republican substitute unfortunately only gives them two aspirins and tells them to go home and forget about it. That is not what we ought to be doing here today. Mr. Speaker, we should have a real bill on the floor to provide the prescription drug benefits. I oppose the rule.”