Bush Wants Medicare Prescription
Drug Plan by July 4
Spectrum
staff and wire
President Bush is attempting to prod lawmakers into quickly giving millions
of seniors a prescription drug benefit and choice in health care coverage as
Congress fashions far-reaching new Medicare legislation.
An influential group of senators has presented a plan to give seniors access
to drug coverage through Medicare for the first time and to create a new managed
care option under the government-run health care program.
A Senate debate is expected during the last two weeks of the month.
The GOP-controlled House is at work on a bill of its own, and is ready to move
quickly on it. Republican sources described the emerging plan as similar to
the Senate bill, although higher-income seniors with big prescription costs
would pay more of their own expenses than the less well off.
On Thursday, in a speech at the New Britain General Hospital in Connecticut,
Bush challenged lawmakers to produce a Medicare bill this summer.
“There’s story after story after story all across America about people
wondering whether or not they can afford life-saving drugs in their later years,
and the Congress must act,” Bush said.
“The Congress must understand we’ve got a problem with Medicare,”
Bush continued.“They should not politicize the issue. They ought to focus
on what’s best for our fellow Americans and get a package done. And the
House needs to get it done, and the Senate needs to get it done prior to the
Fourth of July break.”
Meeting seniors’ demand for coverage under Medicare for skyrocketing drug
costs has long been a wish item in Washington, but has always met with gridlock.
In a private meeting Tuesday, Bush told Republican leaders from both houses
the issue was a top priority, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., said. But the
wide-ranging session in the president’s residence skimmed past the divisions
between the White House and Republicans in Congress over the best way to give
seniors drug coverage.
The administration wants to offer better benefits to seniors who choose to enroll
in Preferred Provider Organizations, part of a desire to modernize the 38-year-old
program and shore up its finances. Under the Senate plan, though, seniors would
receive equivalent drug benefits regardless of whether they purchase coverage
under traditional Medicare or choose to enroll in a PPO.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer made plain Tuesday that Bush still prefers
incentives for seniors to join PPOs, but that he was declining to quarrel with
details of the proposals at this stage. He said only that the president would
demand that the legislation “includes modernization” and offers “choices
and options.”
“What’s important to the president is for the process to continue
to move,” Fleischer said.
By putting off efforts to shape the final product more to his liking to later
in the process, Bush would be following a model he has used successfully in
the past, in part by appealing directly and repeatedly to the public.
The day before his Connecticut speech, Bush spoke about Medicare in Chicago.
He devoted his June 7 radio address to the topic.
“One way to make prescriptions more affordable is to ensure that generic
drugs are not delayed in reaching the market,” Bush said Thursday.
Bush said he has directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take several
steps to limit the ability of drug companies to appeal some FDA rulings, which
will make it harder for companies to extend patents using legal maneuvers, he
said. He said the FDA also is “tightening the overall rules on patent applications
so that false statements to get a patent result in criminal charges.”
“This should save the American consumers about $3.5 billion each year —
savings that will go, of course, to the consumers, to our seniors,” Bush
said.
He said the savings also will help government-run health plans which purchase
drugs for the poor, and will help employers who pay for health coverage for
workers.
The Senate proposal, unveiled by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa, envisions stand-alone prescription drug coverage, starting in 2006,
through private companies under government-dictated terms.
For the first year, seniors would pay a monthly premium of about $35; the first
$275 in costs; half the bills between $276 and $3,450; everything between $3,450
and $5,300; and 10 percent of costs over that amount. Insurance would pay the
remainder.
Low-income seniors would receive government subsidies. And if private companies
were not willing to offer coverage in some parts of the country, the government
would step in.
The Senate plan also would require Medicare recipients to pay a higher deductible
for doctor services — $125, up from $100, beginning Jan. 1, 2006, with
future increases tied to inflation. It would be the first such increase since
1991.
Senate Democrats are divided over the plan, differences that party sources said
were aired at a sometimes-heated closed-door meeting.
The House proposal, meanwhile, would introduce “means-testing” into
a program which historically has offered a standard benefit regardless of income.
Under that version’s drug coverage, seniors would pay a $250 deductible,
20 percent of the next $2,000 in bills, then all the costs until out-of-pocket
expenses reached $3,700 a year, one source said. Insurance would cover all costs
above that, and the remainder below.
The cap on out-of-pocket expenses would be higher than $3,700 for seniors with
incomes over $60,000.
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