Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
Floor Speech
Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 2-month anniversary of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and it would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that, so far, the Part D, D stands for disaster.
The benefit is so complicated and convoluted that even beneficiaries with Ph.D.s have said they could not figure it out.
Why is this program so flawed? Because it was designed, or we like to say in the private sector, the first operation is take care of the customer first. I have yet to find a single pharmaceutical executive or an HMO executive who is complaining about this program, but I have found a heck of a lot of senior citizens who are complaining about this program. This program was never designed with our senior citizens in mind. If it was, you would not have the complexities that are happening for our senior citizens.
The executives of the drug companies will earn $139 billion of additional profits that they would not have earned any other way; insurance companies, $130 billion of additional profits over the next 10 years.
The complexity of the benefit shows, in my view, what was wrong and what we should have done right. Three simple steps:
One, with the May 15 penalty that will kick in, the tax, the senior Medicare tax, postpone that until HHS and CMS figure out what they should be doing, rather than what they should not be doing. No senior should be forced into a program where even the people running it do not know what they are doing.
Second, directly negotiate for prices. That is what the Veterans' Administration does. That is what Sam's Club does. That is what Target does. That is what Costco does. Anybody in the private sector, literally, bulk purchases get a better price than anybody buying individually.
And third, allow people competitive choices by reimportation, allowing them to buy drugs in Canada, England, France, where they can get competitive pricing which is 50 percent cheaper.
I have a Costco in Chicago. There is also a Costco in Toronto. We have up on our Web site the two Costcos, one in Toronto, one in Chicago. Same 10 drugs, same milligram, same dosage; and the Costco in Toronto is constantly $1,000 cheaper for the same drugs over the same period of time than the one in Chicago. And yet both of them are stores that are supposed to be discount.
And lastly, allow generics to market quicker. If you had direct negotiations, reimportation, generics to market quicker, three free market principles where competition and choice rule, we would actually have cheaper pharmaceutical prices, things that seniors can afford, and save money for taxpayers as well.
And yet what we do not have are those programs. And we are forcing in the middle of May, May 15, senior citizens will literally pay a Medicare privatization tax.
On April 15, all Americans will pay a tax. On May 15, because of the complexity of this program, seniors will begin to pay a tax for the complexities.
Seniors that do not want to join this program, that are confused because of the way that they have been forced into plans, had plans drop their drugs, not offer all the drugs they need at a better price than they can get otherwise, will literally start to be taxed by the Federal Government.
Tens of thousands of beneficiaries, today in the New York Times an article highlighted that the beneficiaries are automatically assigned to plans and deciding to switch plans are finding that they are actively enrolled in two drug plans at the same time.
When you read a report on what is going on, you would think you were reading an after-action report on Katrina. What has happened over at HHS and Health and Human Services on Medicare is literally one more example of the disaster the Federal Government has had in running this plan. The situation leaves patients at risk, being charged two premiums or incorrect copayments.
In my hometown of Chicago, seniors have 62 separate drug plans to pick from. And I hear constantly from my constituents every day that the choices are causing confusion and problems. Pharmacists are not sure what is happening. The people administering the plans are not sure what is happening, and it is leaving seniors absolutely in total confusion.
Seniors need clearly more time to figure this out. They should not be penalized with a complexity tax, a privatization tax for taking the time to get the facts. Facts, I remind you, that even HHS and Medicare are not sure of what the facts are as it relates to what is the best plan.
Just to give you an idea of the tax we are talking about, if a senior decided to wait for 2 years before enrolling, there will be a 24 percent higher premium to pay. That is an additional $7.73 per month on top of the monthly premium. If a senior waits longer, it can go as high as $456 a year. For seniors on a fixed income, this is a tremendous financial burden.
Even before the drug benefit went into effect on January 1, there were problems. And the Republican colleagues who wrote the plan know what the problems are.
In fact, the drug manufacturers, again, I would like to repeat and I will be done: $139 billion in profits over the next 8 years and insurers, $130 million.
Source