Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003

PRESCRIPTION DRUG AND MEDICARE IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2003

AMENDMENT NO. 976

    Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I hear often from many on the other side of the aisle that the Republican Party is the party of big corporations and corporate bailouts: This is a $66 billion, big corporation bailout being offered by Members on the other side of the aisle, $66 billion to corporate America that is already getting a huge benefit under this bill. We are already, by providing prescription drugs to all retirees, giving them the ability to basically back away, as has been discussed, from providing basic prescription drugs and still add on, if they want to add on additional benefits to the bottom line benefit. The cost savings already in the bill to corporations are in the billions and billions of dollars. But that is not enough. We have to give big corporate America another $66 billion so they can provide even more generous benefits to their retirees on top of the generous benefit we have in this legislation.

    I find it almost incomprehensible that we are arguing that at a time when we are providing literally tens of billions of dollars—maybe even more than that—to corporate America to help relieve some of their retiree health care costs, now we have to add $66 billion more over the next 10 years to corporate America.

    This is a very unwise amendment. It is a very costly amendment, $66 billion. In addition, you are seeing already that corporate America is getting out of the retiree health care business because it is very expensive. One of the reasons we are moving forward with this legislation is because of that. We have seen the percentage of retiree health plans drop from 71 percent to 44 percent just in the last 15 years. This is a trend that is ongoing. One of the reasons we are stepping in with this universal benefit is to address that issue.

    To in effect provide an additional amount of money to corporations to basically help them maintain their effort in this area is a folly. It is a very costly proposal and should be, hopefully, defeated.

    I reserve the remainder of my time.

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.

    Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, the argument made by the Senator from Pennsylvania is interesting because what he is basically saying is that it is more important that corporate America not be allowed to keep one out of three of their people they currently sponsor, who are retirees who worked for them and who have been getting health benefits from them, out of the picture.

    He talked about the cost to corporate America. My sort of worry is about the cost to the U.S. Government. That is what we do if we don't pass my amendment; we just dump everything on the U.S. Government.

    So this amendment will make sure we do not jeopardize the drug coverage of millions of retirees, one out of every three, who already receive drug coverage from employer-sponsored plans. This amendment is going to ensure that the contributions made on the beneficiaries' behalf by their former employers count toward that beneficiary meeting the catastrophic limit. That is not now the case.

    Employer-sponsored retiree health benefits are the single greatest source of coverage for retirees—the Presiding Officer understands what I am saying—the single greatest source of retiree health benefits available. In fact, 37 percent of all retirees who have corporate-sponsored plans simply lose them if this does not pass.

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. Time has expired.

    Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I hope we will pass my amendment. It is worse for employees. It is worse for employers. I hope my colleagues will support the amendment.

    Mr. REID. Have the yeas and nays been ordered?

    The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.

    The Senator from Pennsylvania has 1 minute 39 seconds remaining of the majority time.

    Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, under the existing legislation, employers are allowed to continue to offer benefits to their employees. Many will. Many will change the structure of the benefit in which they offer to wrap around the existing Medicare benefit, as they do now with Medicare.

    Their retiree insurance plans currently wrap around the existing Medicare plan. Future retiree plans will wrap around. Giving corporations $66 billion over the next 10 years as an incentive to give more generous benefits is nothing but a corporate giveaway and costs the taxpayers literally billions of dollars. It is an unwise transfer of Government dollars, taxpayer dollars to big corporations, that already have very generous health care plans, as well as retirement plans. It is not focused on what we should be focusing on here, which is the poorest of the poor.

    Mr. President, I move to table the amendment and ask for the yeas and nays.