Over his 22-year career in the Senate, John McCain has consistently voted to protect the profits of drug companies at the expense of senior citizens.
In 2003 McCain was a solid opponent of the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act. This landmark legislation provided the nation’s 40 million senior citizens with access to a prescription drug plan as part of their Medicare coverage. During the long debate over the bill, McCain voted against 12 amendments that would have made prescription drugs more affordable to senior citizens.
Here are some of McCain’s 2003 votes on amendments to this Medicare prescription drug legislation:
• He voted against an amendment that would have authorized $2.4 billion a year for four years to lower costs for senior citizens who enrolled in the new Medicare prescription drug program.
• In a striking example of McCain’s indifference to the needs of seriously ill citizens, he opposed an amendment that would have ensured that all cancer patients would be covered under the prescription drug plan.
• McCain opposed an amendment that would have reduced the amount of money seniors would pay for prescription drugs if their incomes were below 250 percent of the federal poverty line.
• McCain voted against an amendment that would have moved the initial start-up date for the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan by two years.
• McCain opposed an amendment that would have limited annual increases in prescription drug coverage premiums to 10 percent.
• McCain voted no on an amendment that would have made the prescription drug plan available to all seniors without regard to whether they participated in a private plan.
• McCain voted no on a proposal to increase government appropriations for the Medicare drug program by $219 billion over 10 years.
McCain’s consistent role in protecting increases in prescription drug prices for pharmaceutical companies goes deep into his legislative past. His votes are by no means limited to the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act.
Here are more of McCain’s votes that were extremely harmful to senior citizens:
• In 2002 McCain opposed an effort to provide prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients whose incomes were below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
• In 2002 McCain opposed a prescription drug plan for seniors that would have set a monthly premium of $25 and a $10 copayment for generic drugs and a $40 copayment for brand-name drugs. Total out-of-pocket expenses would have been capped at $4,000.
• In 2002 McCain opposed an amendment that would have permitted states to require pharmaceutical companies to discount drug prices for Medicare patients.
• In 2001 McCain supported a sham prescription drug plan that would have allowed private insurance companies to set premiums and determine the benefits seniors would have received.
• In 2001 McCain opposed the appropriation of $311 billion over 10 years to establish a prescription drug plan for senior citizens.
• In 2000 McCain voted against adding a prescription drug plan to the Medicare program.
Right now, the Obama campaign needs to educate senior citizens on the near certainty that if John McCain is president, there will be strong pressures from the White House to raise prescription drug prices. At the same time Obama should make a concerted effort to show seniors how his healthcare plan will boost the availability of generic drugs. Obama must show how his plan will enable the Medicare program to buy drugs at wholesale prices, reducing out-of-pocket costs to seniors.
McCain’s record on prescription drugs is a special threat to the 3 million senior citizens in Florida who make up 17 percent of the electorate. This is the highest percentage of seniors in any state in the nation. If voters are properly educated on McCain’s voting record on prescription drug prices, even a small change in the very large senior vote in Florida could shift the state’s huge bloc of 27 electoral votes to Obama.
Obviously, concerns that McCain will work to raise prescription drug prices is not limited to Florida. McCain’s harmful record on prescription drug pricing should have a major impact throughout the United States. Nationwide, there are 36 million senior citizens in this country and they tend to vote in much larger percentages than the rest of the electorate. At least 25 million of them now participate in the Medicare prescription drug plan that John McCain opposed.
Undoubtedly, too, there are another 50 million or more voting adult-age children of seniors who are deeply concerned about increasing drug prices for their parents.
Pennsylvania is another state where educating voters about McCain’s record on prescription drugs would be a positive strategy for Obama. There are 2.5 million senior citizens in Pennsylvania and they make up 15 percent of the total electorate. An increased level of support for Obama among senior citizens in Pennsylvania could help Obama overcome his weakness among white working-class voters in the central and western parts of the state.
If voters are informed, their anger at McCain over prescription drug prices should be white-hot. This, combined with McCain’s shameful record in opposition to Medicare coverage, could drive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of senior citizens nationwide to the Democratic ticket.
For more political strategies concerning the 2008 presidential election, go to ObamaElectionWatch.com