06.17.03

Senator Cantwell's Statement on Legislation to Add a Prescription Drug Benefit to Medicare

WASHINGTON, D.C. - "Thank you for inviting me here today. As women senators, we have an obligation to be here to fight for the generation of women who raised us.

Around the time we were being raised by these women – our moms – a program called Medicare was created. At that time, the healthcare system relied on inpatient hospitalization and seldom on outpatient services. Prescription drugs accounted for only four percent of all personal health care expenditures.

But as we enter the 21st century, health care has shifted. Every day, as new preventive and therapeutic drugs replace outdated inpatient producers, Medicare falls further and further behind in providing basic care.

Medicare was written to cover the most basic health care for seniors. When Congress first created Medicare, it designed the program to, and I quote, "make the best of modern medicine more readily available to the aged."

We are not making the best use of modern medicine when millions of seniors cannot afford access to the prescription drugs they need.

This is especially important to older women dependent on Medicare for their health care.

Medicare is not typically thought of as a woman’s program, but it does disproportionately affect women. Almost six in ten of those on Medicare at age 65 are women.

By age 85, women outnumber men in the program by more than two to one. In Washington state, 58 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are women. Women on Medicare spend 20 percent more on prescription drugs than their male counterparts because women live longer and typically have more chronic illnesses.

In fact, in 2003, female Medicare beneficiaries spent a total of $2,418 on prescription drugs – nearly $1,100 of that was out of their own pockets. But their male counterparts spend much less. Men spent $2,195 in total on prescription drugs and $868 out-of-pocket – hundreds of dollars less than what women spent.

Statistics and studies can say a lot, but nothing says more about this issue than the real people who face this real problem.

One woman from Concrete, a small town in the Northwest corner of Washington state, wrote to me about the injustice of her mother-in-law not being able to afford the medicines she needs even after working hard for most of her life.

A concerned grandson in Seattle wrote to me about the difficulty his grandmother is having trying to pay for both her prescription drugs and her rent. For some seniors, this simply isn’t manageable.

There is a clear need for prescription drug coverage and it needs to be under Medicare. Seniors do not want their prescription drug benefit run through an HMO or other private insurance company.

According to a June 2002 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government, 67 percent of American people believe we should expand Medicare to pay for part of prescription drugs, but only 26 percent say we should help seniors buy private insurance to pay for prescription drugs costs.

I am taking a stand on behalf of the seniors who do not want to rely on private insurers for their coverage. In the next two weeks, as the Senate debates S. 1, the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, I will be introducing an amendment to protect our seniors from the rising costs of prescription drugs.

Sixty five percent of senior citizens with prescription drug coverage are served by a pharmacy benefit manager or "PBM." PBMs will be an integral part of any Medicare drug benefit. It is my intention to ensure their practices are in the best interests of Medicare recipients. PBMs are able to negotiate low prescription drug prices because they purchase drugs for a large number of beneficiaries. My amendment requires disclosure of these negotiations and an annual audit to make sure that any savings being achieved by the Medicare program are returned to senior citizens.

Congress is trying to take a reasoned approach to integrating a new prescription drug benefit into the Medicare program. As women Senators, we must pay special attention to the prescription drug needs of women in the Medicare program.

I have had many conversations with seniors in Washington to discuss the need for prescription drugs. This is what my constituents tell me: they want prescription drug coverage to be comprehensive, simple to administer, guaranteed, stable, and based on the very best medical technology. And most importantly, they want the benefit run through Medicare – a program they understand and upon which they depend."