Biden Meets with Local Seniors About Prescription Drugs and Medicare
July 2, 2002
Wilmington, DE – During a round table discussion with several local senior citizens, U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. once again stressed the urgency of providing a comprehensive prescription drug benefit under the Medicare program.
“Over the past few years, the cost of prescription drugs has been on the rise,” said Senator Biden. “Though virtually all private health plans carry some type of prescription drug benefit, all too often, the elderly and disabled cannot take advantage of the major advances in drug treatment because the Medicare program does not pay for outpatient prescription drugs.
“It makes absolutely no sense to me that the one group in our society that is the sickest, that could benefit most from these medications, is the one group that is denied access to them,” said Biden.
Biden noted that eighty-five percent of Medicare beneficiaries take at least one prescription medicine each day, and on average, seniors fill 18 prescriptions a year. Nationally, the average senior without prescription coverage spends $800 out of pocket each year filling critical prescriptions.
“Medicare is one of the greatest public policy successes of the 20th century. It has made life better for millions of American seniors for more than a generation,” said Senator Biden. “But as these seniors with me today can attest, times have changed and we must change Medicare as well. Many seniors are on a fixed income and simply cannot afford to pay their mortgage, buy groceries and fill all of their prescriptions. Seniors need a prescription drug benefit through Medicare and they need it now.”
Last month, The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that would offer subsidies to seniors to allow them to purchase drug coverage from private insurance companies. There are several versions of a prescription drug bill being considered in the U.S. Senate each with different approaches to providing a prescription drug benefit.
In order to be effective, Senator Biden believes a prescription drug benefit should meet several criteria: it must be voluntary and available to everyone in Medicare; it must be affordable; stable and reliable; and must provide extra help to those with the lowest incomes or the highest drug expenditures.
“I’m here today to listen to these seniors and take their stories with me back to the U.S. Senate,” said Senator Biden. “The last thing these folks should be worried about is how to pay the electric bill and buy their blood pressure medicine. We owe it to them to fix this problem.”
