|
||||||||
Legislative Update: The Medicare Budget Sham By Michael Ouellette, Legislative Director, TSCL Recently Congress announced that they would set aside $40 billion over the next five years to create a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. The proposed budget, however, would not be enough to add a prescription drug benefit that would cover all Medicare recipients, but would target low-income beneficiaries instead. The U.S. Comptroller General has testified that adding a prescription drug benefit would increase Medicare costs about 7-10% per year. That means it would take about $76 billion over five years to add a benefit that would cover all Medicare recipients. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and most of the GOP want to offer prescription coverage only to low-income beneficiaries and those with extremely high drug costs. Several studies suggest, however, that many middle income seniors are having a difficult time affording prescription drugs and that coverage for low-income only would not help most seniors. The debate over whether to add prescription drug coverage is also stalled over whether to add the coverage under the current system, as President Clinton has proposed, or to add the coverage within a reformed Medicare system as proposed by Senators John Breaux (D-LA) and Bill Frist (R-TN). While the debate over prescription drugs remains stalled, the Speaker of the House and many members of the Senate have not ruled out using some of the $40 billion budget to increase reimbursements to home health care agencies, nursing homes, and other health care providers. Although there appears to be a legitimate need to provide better access to home health care and other health care services, a $40 billion budget over five years cannot provide both a universal prescription drug benefit for all Medicare beneficiaries and improve access to services. The Medicare budget set by Congress is a sham because it is not enough. According to the 2000 Medicare trustees report, Medicare is in better financial shape than projections indicated just one year ago. Reductions in Medicare spending will increase the Medicare Trust Fund by $129 billion over the next five years. The money is available to add a prescription drug benefit for all Medicare recipients. Since Medicare was established benefits have always been the same for all beneficiaries. Medicaid programs already exist for low-income individuals. We urge you to contact your Member of Congress now to ask them to support adding a meaningful drug benefit to Medicare—not one that is too low to help the majority of seniors.
| ||||||||
