Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1074

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Publication type: news

Hallam K.
Sen. Kennedy to Press for $700 Bln Prescription Drug Proposal
2003 Apr 23

Full text:

Sen. Kennedy to Press for $700 Bln Prescription Drug Proposal
Washington, April 23 (Bloomberg) — Senator Edward Kennedy
said he’ll press for a $700 billion plan to pay prescription drug
costs for seniors and the disabled, almost double the 10-year,
$400 billion proposal backed by President George W. Bush.
The Bush plan would have a ``large doughnut hole’‘ of
funding, requiring the program to be slowly phased in and watering
down its effectiveness, said Kennedy, the senior Democrat on the
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
``It has to be a sufficient price tag for seniors to support
it,’‘ said Kennedy, one of the key negotiators last year who tried
to reach an agreement for offering a prescription drug benefit
under the federal Medicare program.
Kennedy’s plan, which calls for Medicare patients to pay $25
to $26 a month for prescription coverage, may help set the
boundaries for this year’s talks.
Negotiators came so close to a deal last year that an
agreement this year is within reach, said Kennedy, of
Massachusetts. ``We were not all that far away last session,’‘ he
said. ``We got stampeded by time.’‘
The two sides still have to resolve the major disagreement
besides money, which is how beneficiaries would receive their
medicines. Bush and the Republicans favor offering incentives for
using subsidized private coverage and including discounts for the
drugs.
The system would benefit Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc,
which have the two biggest shares of the U.S. prescription market,
because of increased coverage for their medicines. Health insurers
Aetna Inc., Humana Inc., Cigna Corp., Health Net Inc., and Blue
Cross & Blue Shield may gain new customers.
Doctor Choice
Kennedy has said Bush’s plan would force seniors to choose
health maintenance organizations over family doctors. The plan
also has drawn fire from House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senator
Charles Grassley, whose Finance Committee will draft the
prescription drug bill in the Senate.
Republicans Hastert, of Illinois, and Grassley, of Iowa,
represent rural and semi-rural areas where doctors and hospitals
are less plentiful and managed-care networks are harder to build.
Kennedy said he’d offer his prescription drug plan as an
amendment to a $350 billion tax cut bill to revive the economy
that the Finance Committee is drafting.
``I don’t see the support out there for a significant tax
cut,’‘ he said.
Medical Tax Credits
The senator also said he’ll entertain Bush’s plan of using
tax credits to provide health care benefits if the administration
expands coverage of parents under the Children’s Health Insurance
Program.
Kennedy also would support a deductible of between $100 and
$125 a year for Medicare prescription-drug coverage, said Jim
Manley, the senator’s spokesman.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, an organ-transplant
surgeon, understands the need for a prescription drug benefit and
will nurture a compromise, said Kennedy.
Republicans may balk at the cost, said Christine Iverson, a
spokeswoman for Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican
who’s chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee.
``Any prescription drug benefit would have to receive broad
bipartisan support,’‘ Iverson said. ``Seven hundred billion
dollars may be higher than many senators are willing to support.
All priorities will have to be weighed in the context of the
overall debate.’‘
Grassley couldn’t be immediately reached for comment