Full Transcript of Pelosi Press Conference on Health C...(ou to pay for a bill? Of course not. ...),Health

For the first six months of the year, I pay $85 in monthly premiums. In exchange, I receive my Part D benefits for my eight daily medicines. But when I hit the donut hole, for the remaining six months of the year, I must pay for both my $85 monthly premium and the full price for my medicine.

These drugs cost me $700 per month when I'm forced into the donut hole. And, again, this is $700 per month on top of the $85 monthly premium I must pay for half of the year.

I'm forced to pay these premiums while receiving absolutely nothing in return. Why do I keep paying these premiums? Under the Medicare Part D rules, if I stop paying my premiums, I am out of the program for the next year.

The donut hole sure seems like a sweetheart deal for the big drug insurance companies. When I look around, my friends and neighbors in Prince Georges County, Maryland, I see so many of them struggling. Health care keeps costing more while medicine and private insurance keep covering less.

My mother was one of those people. She kept having to cut all the wrong corners with her health. She had a stroke and was paralyzed for the last four years of her life because she had to stretch her medicines too thin just to make ends meet. This is America -- the greatest country ever. Why do we still allow this to happen? I'm hopeful that this will finally be the year we fix our health care mess. We have been talking about this for decades. None of us are getting any younger. We need help, and we need help now.

I am grateful that this legislation will start closing the Part D donut hole and finally finish it off. This bill will help me and millions, like me, as soon as it becomes law. Let's make this the year that we finally reform health care, thank you.

Majority Whip Clyburn. Thank you, Phil, my neighbor t
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