Legislative Update: Senate Rejects Four Medicare Prescription Drug Bills

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Legislative Update: Senate Rejects Four Medicare Prescription Drug Bills

By Ken Byrer, Director of Legislative Affairs,
TREA Senior Citizens League

Senators of both parties will soon have to answer to senior voters. In July, the Senate was deadlocked over four different bills that would have added prescription drug benefits to Medicare. None of the bills, Democrat, GOP, a “tri-partisan” version, or a compromise version, gained the 60 votes needed to ensure passage.

The key sticking point is whether the program should be controlled by the government and offer uniform benefits, premiums, copayments, and deductibles, or by private companies who are allowed to compete by offering plans that vary benefits, premiums, co-payments, and deductibles. Private plans would have to provide an equivalent to government established “basic” coverage.

The Senate did pass a bill that would limit patent delays by drug manufacturers and speed generics onto the market place. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the generic bill would reduce spending on prescription drugs by $60 billion over the next 10 years. The generic bill also included an amendment to allow American pharmacies and wholesalers to import prescription drugs from Canada where drug prices are often much lower.

As we go to press, the outcome to this debate is not yet known. The House has passed a Medicare prescription drug bill, but nothing on generics. If a compromise can be reached, the final version of any legislation requires careful monitoring, because in the past, Congress has passed bills with provisions that don’t always work as anticipated. In 1988 for example, Congress passed the “Medicare Catastrophic Act” which added prescription drug benefits to Medicare. Once seniors learned how much the coverage cost them in extra premiums, outrageously steep deductibles, and taxes, it was hurriedly repealed the following year.

This is not the time to give up. To the contrary, it’s time to firmly let your Senators and Member of the House know the gravity of this situation. Not only is a prescription drug benefit important to you, it’s very important to their prospects for holding office another term. Congress has debated and deadlocked over prescription drugs for five years. Lawmakers do not want to give senior voters a reason to “clean house.” Write a letter to your Senators and Representative at http://action.tscl.org/GuideToContactingCongress.asp.

For more details on this, read “Prescription Drug Plans Moving Through Congress,” at http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101549.asp.

October 2002