President Renews Call for Prescription Drug Coverage in Medicare
Remarks by the President on Prescription Drugs
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for that warm welcome. I
appreciate you coming out today and giving me a chance to talk about
how do we work together to make America a more secure place and a
better place for all of us. And part of making sure America is a
better place for each and every one of us and a more secure place is to
make sure we've got a health care system that is responsive and vibrant
and alive and well and a place -- a system that will really relate to
each and every one of us as an individual, give each and every one of
us a chance as we grow older to have a health care system that we can
be proud of and confident in.
That's why I started my day here in Minnesota at the University of
Minnesota Medical School. You were probably wondering why Yudof was
relevant. (Laughter and applause.) That's because he hosted me at a
fine medical school. And there I had the honor and opportunity to talk
to some fellow Minnesotans about how to advance medicine, some of the
research that was taking place. I talked to some patients and heard
from some of our elderly about how -- what kind of system was necessary
to have the quality of life that we want for each and every one of us.
It's -- the key is to make sure that we advance medicine in a way
that makes sure that our citizens get access to new drugs, new
lifesaving drugs, unbelievably innovative drugs that have changed
medicine as we know it. And it starts with making sure our seniors
have got a guarantee of a prescription drug coverage in Medicare.
That's where it ought to start. It ought to start with our seniors who
have paid their dues. (Applause.)
And as we do so, as we look at Medicare to make sure it includes
prescription drugs, we must make sure that whatever system evolves does
not undermine the great innovations which take place in America. And
that's important to remember, that as we debate this issue in Congress,
as Congress debates the issue and of course I'm watching attentively
(laughter) -- that we do not undermine the great strength of the
American system, which is the capacity to be on the cutting edge of new
technologies which save lives.
The House has passed a good first step, by the way, in reforming
and making sure Medicare is modern and capable. And I hope the Senate
acts quickly and gets a responsible bill into conference, so that we
can get a bill to my desk and we can get moving to doing what is right
for the American people.
I appreciate so very much Tommy Thompson traveling with me today.
He is -- he has been a fine, fine Secretary of Health and Human
Services. He was a great governor of Wisconsin, and he has brought a
lot of innovation to -- (applause).
There's a lot of folks I could introduce. I want to introduce one
other person, a person I had the opportunity to meet at the airport
when I came in.
One of the things I like to do is to herald kind of the quiet heros
of our society, those who volunteer to make their communities a better
place. I met Pearl Lam Bergad when I came earlier today. I don't know
if you've ever heard of Pearl Lam here in your community. But she has
done a magnificent job of heralding the cultural life of Minnesota.
She is a remarkable volunteer. Where are you, Pearl Lam? She's
somewhere here. She must not have gotten a very good seat.
(Laughter.) Oh, there you are, Pearl Lam. Please stand up, will you?
Thank you for coming. (Applause.)
She's worked tirelessly to promote and improve cultural awareness
in the community. She did so without any government agency telling her
what to do. She did so because she wanted to serve. She did so
because she had a talent she wanted to share. You see, the great
strength of the country is the fact that we've got a nation full of
people who really, honestly, decently care about the communities in
which they live and want to do something about it. And so, Pearl Lam,
I want to thank you on behalf of the thousands and millions of others
in our country for volunteering. (Applause.)
I called up my friend Mark Yudof and invited myself here because
Minnesota is one of the leading centers of health care innovation in
our country. (Applause.) And that's saying a lot. People come from
all around the world to come to the University of Minnesota's cancer
center. I don't know if you know that or not, but that's one of the
most famous cancer centers. We thought we were pretty good in Texas.
(Laughter.) But you're really good here. This university performed
the first successful bone marrow transplant and is one of the world's
leaders in curing childhood leukemia and other cancers. There's a lot
of incredible work going on right here in your neighborhood.
Patients from all over the globe have had their lives saved by
heart devices and other medical products invented by the hundreds of
medical companies that have their homes in what you call Medical Alley
in the Minneapolis area, and I know we've got some of the -- some of
the entrepreneurs, the medical entrepreneurs here with us today, and I
want to thank you for your work and I want to thank you for employing
people. (Applause.)
People from every corner of the world come to a clinic in southern
Minnesota called Mayo Clinic. I know something about that, because my
mother's on the board. (Laughter.) Whew, those must be amazing board
meetings. (Laughter.) Sorry, Mom. (Laughter.)
But the Mayo Clinic's countless breakthroughs include effective
drug treatment for tuberculosis and other diseases. And the clinic now
has branches all across the country to make sure our seniors get the
best possible health care.
I just met with a Mayo Clinic cardiologist named Doug Wood. I want
to share a story he told me. I think it helps make my point about the
need for us to stay on the cutting edge of drug therapy.
When he was a resident less than 25 years ago, the only real
decision he had in treating a heart attack patient was how long to keep
him or her in bed. That was the most important decision he had to make
after the heart attack, how long will bed rest last. He could do more
than just offer comfort and, knowing Doug, he offered a lot of
comfort.
But today, thanks to progress in drug treatments, Dr. Wood uses a
wide range of treatments to limit the damage from heart attack, to stop
any further progress of the heart disease, and to prevent it from
happening in the first place. In 25 short years, the ability for this
healer to make a significant difference in the lives of those who have
had heart diseases is amazing. It is a fantastic development in our
society.
And the future promises even more breakthroughs. That's the
exiting thing about America. Thanks to the rapidly evolving field of
genetic medicine, doctors may soon be able to prescribe individually
suited drugs based on their patients' genetic makeup. If you think
about that, you've got a particular problem and the drug will be
designed to meet your need, it's medicine at its most basic level.
But there's a problem, and I think we all recognize it now in our
society and we need to do something about it. And no matter how
exciting the new drug therapies are, they're oftentimes very costly.
Because Medicare -- and what makes it even worse is that Medicare does
not cover most prescription drugs. That's reality. Too many seniors,
because that's the case -- because they're too costly, and Medicare
doesn't cover them -- too many of our seniors are forced to chose
between paying for their pills or paying basic bills. And that's not
right in America. (Applause.)
And the reason why is because the Medicare system was designed for
a different time. It's old. It is -- it served a noble purpose, and
it made a huge difference in a lot of people's lives. But it was
designed at a time, for example, when surgery was common. And the
miraculous prescription drugs we have today were not only available --
not available, but some people hadn't even thought about them yet.
We need a Medicare system that is updated and modern, to serve the
seniors of today with the medicine of today, and to be able to serve
the seniors of tomorrow, guys like me, with the medicines of tomorrow.
We need a system which works. (Applause.)
I support a prescription drug benefit in Medicare that allows
seniors to chose the drug coverage that is best for them, that is best
for them. I also support allowing and encouraging seniors to band
together to use purchasing power to -- purchasing clout -- to be able
to get lower drug -- prices on their drugs.
Now, what you need to know is that a full Medicare drug benefit
will take some years to phase in. And that's why I think we need to
have a Medicare endorsed prescription drug card immediately for our
seniors. (Applause.) The card will allow seniors to gain access to
manufacturer discounts on the drugs they use, as well as gain access to
other valuable pharmaceutical services immediately. I talked about
this last year. Court moved in there, and we're trying to get the
court out of it. This is important for seniors.
I also support proposals like the one the House just passed, that
will provide federal funds for immediate prescription drug assistance
for seniors.
Now, the key is to make sure that we expand seniors' access to
programs that help them work with their doctors to use the best
treatments, too. And that includes better access to innovative disease
management programs, like a program you have right here in Minnesota
called Evercare.
You should have heard the testimony I heard, one from a loyal
daughter whose mom is now in the Evercare Program, and another from a
customer of Evercare, about the need to use Medicare Plus Choice to
fund innovative programs that allow for seniors to feel like they're
not a part of some giant bureaucracy but in fact treated on a basis
that you'd want to be treated on. And that's what Evercare does. And
those are the kinds of innovations we need throughout our system by
giving seniors more choice in the system. (Applause.)
While we strengthen Medicare, we must also encourage innovation by
preserving our private health care system the private health care
system, which is the envy of the world.
In the report issued today that Tommy talked about, the Department
of Health and Human Services says this. In countries which rely on
government controls to keep health care costs down, presumably to keep
health care costs down, the patient suffers. And that's important for
you all to understand and to know. And it's important for those who
advocate government control of all the health care in America to
understand as well. The patient suffers.
If you want a health care system where the patient doesn't suffer
but, in fact, benefits, we must be innovative and encourage a healthy
private sector. When government determines which drugs are covered by
health insurance, when government makes those decisions, the invariable
results are this: there will be delays and inflexible limits on
coverage of new treatments.
Costs might go down for seniors who are lucky enough to need the
drugs that are on the government's list. But, as in the Canadian
provinces and in many other countries, seniors who need drugs that are
not on the government's list would have no alternative to get the
coverage they prefer. All seniors have to wait for the government to
decide what is covered, and that doesn't seem fair to me. And with
prescription drugs, those delays can be life-threatening. And the
heavy hand of government in other countries often does this, it
discourages the costly and time-consuming investments in research
necessary to discover new drugs.
I want you to understand these facts. Eight of the 10 top 10
best selling drugs in the world were developed by American companies.
While we can expect that 34 out of the 55 breakthrough drugs entering
the market this year will come from American companies. It is our
companies and our researchers which are leading the world in finding
the therapies necessary to save lives. And we've got to remember
that. And therefore, we need to steer clear of direct government
controls that stifle innovation and limit a patient's choice.
(Applause.)
What's interesting is that more than half of our seniors have
private drug coverage now because of their previous employment. And
government should act to strengthen these private health insurance
options, not replace them. By relying on competition and patient's
choice, and innovative programs like Evercare, we will protect our
seniors now, and offer many new lifesaving services to seniors in the
future and preserve our private health care system.
When the founders of the Mayo Clinic started their practice over a
century ago, they chose a clear principle to guide their work. The
best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered,
that's the principle. Minnesota's immense and continuing contributions
to biotechnology demonstrates that this is the right principle for our
health care system.
As members of Congress act to provide a drug benefit in Medicare, I
urge them to honor the principle I just outlined, by putting patient
control and patient choice ahead of government control. (Applause.)
If we do so, we can guarantee the continued vitality and productivity
of America's private health care system, while providing the modern
drug coverage that seniors so desperately need.
And that's part of making sure we have a secure America. Health
security is part of being a secure America. The other thing we need to
do to make sure we secure -- a lot of things we need to do to make sure
we secure America -- one is to make sure we continue to grow our
economy. Job security is important for a secure America.
But I want to just tell you real quickly about how I'm thinking
about the war on terror, while I've got you stuck here. (Laughter.)
The war goes on. We face an enemy who is -- they like to hide, and
they'll go to the big cities in some of these countries and think
they're invisible. And sometimes we don't hear from them for a while.
But you need to know, they're still plotting and planning. These are
the ones that go into caves and send their youngsters to the death.
They themselves hide, and get somebody else to carry on their mission,
sometimes suicide missions.
They're out their still. They still hate America, because we love
freedom. They hate us because we value the fact that people should
worship freely. The more free we are, the more desperate they become.
They like to find countries that are soft, kind of burrow in and try to
plan. And you just need to know we're doing everything we can to
disrupt them. The doctrine still holds, either you're with the United
States of America and freedom-loving countries, or you're with the
terrorists. (Applause.)
We have over 60,000 troops overseas, 8,000 still in Afghanistan.
As you know, Afghanistan is still a dangerous place. And we're going
to stay there until a stable government emerges, until we complete our
mission. We're -- any time we get in a hint in a place like
Afghanistan, we're moving, and we're moving with some of the finest
Americans ever produced, those who wear our uniform. (Applause.)
This is a different kind of war. In the past, you'd see tank
movements or airplane formations. This is like hunting down a bunch of
cold-blooded killers, that's what it's like. And that's all they are,
by the way. And we're after 'em one at a time, one person at a time.
We've -- when I talked about the need for us to establish a Department
of Homeland Security, I announced -- part of my announcement was that I
told the people that we had hauled in -- "we" being our friends, as
well as ourselves -- hauled in over 2,400 of these terrorists. That's
in less than a year's time. So we're making progress, one person at a
time. (Applause.)
Our goal is to get 'em on the run, and keep 'em on the run, so they
have no place to light, or no place to hide. And it's going to take a
while. The American people understand that, that's positive. That's
good news for us, and bad news for the enemy. The American people
understand that we've got a new challenge, because we understand when
somebody attacks our values, the values we hold dear, it doesn't matter
how long it takes, we'll defend them.
I've submitted a bill -- an appropriations request to the Congress,
which is a significant increase in our defense spending. And I did it
for two reasons. One is, I firmly believe that any time we commit our
young into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training,
the best equipment possible. (Applause.)
And two, it's a signal to the enemy and to our friends and allies
that we're in this for the long run. There is no time certain as to
when we quit. There is not a calendar that says, by such and such a
moment, you've got to stop, Mr. President. For however long it takes,
we defend our freedoms. History has called America into action, and
America America will act, because we're a nation that stands for
tremendous values. We love freedom. We love freedom. (Applause.)
And anybody that tries to take it away --
I also want you to know this, that out of the evil done to America
is going to come some good, I firmly believe that. I believe it.
(Applause.) I want the youngsters here to understand when you hear your
President talk about getting them and rounding them up, that I yearn
for peace. And I believe, I believe we can achieve peace. I believe
that when this country remains strong and steadfast and resolved, we
can achieve peace, peace not only for our own people, but peace in
parts of the world where people have never dreamt of peace in a while.
(Applause.)
That's the legacy this generation will leave behind, by being tough
and doing what it takes to win the war on terror, we'll leave peace for
our children and our grandchildren. I'll tell you what else is going
to happen here, as a result of the evil done to America, there's going
to be some incredible good here at home, too. I believe people have
taken a step back, and asked, what's important in life? You know, the
bottom line and this corporate America stuff, is that important? Or is
serving your neighbor, loving your neighbor like you'd like to be loved
yourself?
I gave a speech at Ohio State University, at their graduation, and
I was pleased to see that 70 percent of the seniors in the class had
served their community, one way or the other. They understand that a
life in America is most complete when you help a neighbor in need, when
you volunteer your time. That in America, being a patriot is more than
just putting your hand over your heart, and saying, "one nation under
God." (Applause.) It also means loving a neighbor. It means mentoring
a child.
You see, in spite of our richness, there are pockets of despair and
hopelessness and loneliness and addiction that we must address. The
enemy hit us, and I believe they finally -- they helped wake up a
spirit of personal responsibility, a spirit that says, being an
American means you've got to help a neighbor in need, as well as
saluting your flag.
And it's happening in this country, it's happening. And I believe
that out of the evil done to America is going to come a society in
which the great American experience and the great American hopes
extends into all neighborhoods, where people realize that they're
fortunate to live in the greatest land I mean the greatest on the
face of the Earth. And it's my honor to be your President.
(Applause.)
I want to thank you all I want to thank you all for giving me a
chance to come by and talk about an issue that's important for today
and tomorrow, and that is quality health care for our seniors. And
thank you for giving me a chance to be the President of the greatest
nation on the face of the earth. God bless, and God bless America.
(Applause.)