Congress Approves Huge Expansion of Medicare

Congress Approves Huge Expansion of Medicare

NewsMax.com Wires and NewsMax.com
Friday, June 27, 2003

WASHINGTON – Congress early today approved the biggest expansion of Medicare since its creation nearly four decades ago.

Seen as a political victory for President Bush and breaking six years of political gridlock, the Senate and House passed competing legislation to provide prescription drug benefits to elders and give private health plans a much larger role in the program.

The Senate version cleared easily in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, 76-21. The House vote was a squeaker, 216-215, in a dramatic, 40-minute roll call decided only after several Republicans switched their votes.

Bush and Senate Republican leaders hailed the legislation, but many Democrats who voted for the costly bill said they did so reluctantly.

"I urge the Congress to reconcile their differences and to get a bill to my desk as quickly as possible," the president said. After the House and Senate reconcile differences in their versions, Bush hopes to sign the measure into law later this summer.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who supported the bill grudgingly, warned against changes in negotiations with the House.

"This is a fragile agreement," agreed Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who helped craft the deal. "If the balance tips one way or another, we could lose it."

"I find this bill is very expensive and very light on reforms," said Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla.

The House and Senate bills are intended to create a vibrant marketplace of private health plans to give elders new alternatives to the traditional, government-run Medicare program.

"This is the greatest action in a generation to mend the broken promise of Medicare," said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. But Democrats who wanted an even bigger role for government and even more expensive expansion of Medicare denounced the compromise.

"It destroys Medicare as we know it," fumed Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

Good, responded Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif. "Old-fashioned Medicare is not very good," he said.

"It's important for Republicans to deliver. We campaigned on this," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.

"So long as it's a universal drug benefit, it will be the biggest new federal entitlement since 1965. And I cannot and will not support it," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.

What the two bills have in common:

They would open Medicare to preferred provider organizations, which encourage patients to use doctors inside the network but allow them to see others for an extra charge. Drug benefits would be the same for people who stay in the government-run system and those who choose PPOs.

Participants would pay a monthly premium and an annual deductible before taxpayers begin sharing the cost of medicines.

There would be a gap in coverage and with help resumed for those with particularly high costs.

Poor elders would get extra help, and wealthy elders would get less.

How the two bills conflict:

There are differences in how much of the drug tab would be picked up and how the benefit would be structured.

The House's bill would require wealthy elders to spend more of their own money before they get government help for very high costs. The Senate version would charge the wealthy more for premiums in Part B, which covers visits to doctors.

The House's version would expand medical savings accounts, "a favorite of conservatives, which would give tax breaks to encourage savings for health costs. That measure, if enacted, would cost $174 billion over 10 years, nearly half as much as the entire Medicare bill," the Associated Press reported.

The House's bill opens Medicare more to private enterprise, which Democrats oppose. In 2010, the bill would force the government-run Medicare to compete on price with private plans. Premiums for each of the options would be set through competitive bidding. An analysis by Medicare's chief actuary predicted that premiums could rise by as much as 25 percent.

"Congress has set aside $400 billion over 10 years to overhaul Medicare and add a drug benefit for the 40 million elderly and disabled in the program," the Washington Times reported. No one knows the ultimate cost of all this "reform," but future generations of Americans will have to pay.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
DNC
Health Issues
RNC
Editor's note:
Have an Opinion About This? Click Here to Send an URGENT PriorityGram Today