Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1086

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Publication type: news

Heil E.
Frist Predicts Passage Of Medicare Reform Legislation ...
2003 Apr 29

Full text:

Senate Majority Leader Frist told the American Hospital Association today that the “legislative stars are lined up in an unprecedented way,” making passage more likely than ever of a comprehensive Medicare reform bill that includes a prescription drug benefit. Painting broad outlines of the plan that he predicted would clear the Senate Finance Committee and arrive on the Senate floor by the July Fourth recess, Frist said committee Republicans were still hammering out the details and would work with Democrats to craft a bipartisan bill.

The measure would allow seniors to keep their existing benefits and get access to a prescription drug card, he said. If seniors joined a new Medicare PPO, they could get access to a full-drug benefit. The plan would be an “assimilation of proposals from the past,” including the so-called tripartisan bill from last session, previous House proposals and the president’s proposed framework, Frist said. For example, the bill would adopt an element of the president’s proposal that would make PPOs regional, instead of focusing on individual counties. The measure will reach the Finance Committee by early June, he predicted. The House is likely to pass a bill “either in parallel, or slightly before” the Senate does, Frist said. “The political environment is right,” Frist told the hospital executives. “We have a president who has put together a … visionary plan for what Medicare should look like. We have a House that has three times passed a bill and will do so again this year. And now there is a U.S. Senate that is poised and ready to move.”

However, Frist cautioned that powerful forces were working against the passage of a drug benefit. The politics involved in the presidential race may complicate the chamber’s work, since as many as eight senators are running for office, he noted. He also complained of pervasive “obstructionism” from Democrats, citing the stalled nomination of Miguel Estrada to the federal appeals bench. “We have a unique opportunity today — a window of opportunity to strengthen and improve Medicare — but it is a narrow window.” Frist’s plan is likely to encounter resistance from some Senate Democrats, who are linking their fight against the proposed tax cuts to the Medicare debate. “The issue isn’t cost,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told the AHA. “The issue is priorities. Health care for the American people is more important than a large, new tax break for millionaires.”