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Senior Citizen Politics
Democrats, Obama Likely to Seek Changes to Medicare
Advantage, Prescription Drug Benefit
Democratic lawmakers 'aiming to change elements' of
Medicare prescription drug benefit, such as the so-called "doughnut
hole" coverage gap
 Dec.
15, 2008 - Democratic lawmakers and President-elect Barack Obama in 2009
likely will seek to reduce reimbursements to private health insurers
under Medicare Advantage and make changes to the Medicare prescription
drug benefit, the
Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal, reimbursements for MA
plans are 13% higher than payments for the Medicare fee-for-service
program for equivalent benefits, and the extra payments are "long-sought
targets" for Democratic lawmakers, who in the past have attempted to
reduce them to fund other efforts, such as an expansion of SCHIP.
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Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that said he
seeks to reduce such "overpayments" as part of his health care reform
proposal. In addition, Obama during his campaign said that he supports a
reduction in "excessive subsidies" to MA plans.
Democratic lawmakers "also are aiming to change
elements" of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, such as the
so-called "doughnut hole" coverage gap, the Journal reports. In
addition, House Ways and Means
Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.), Obama and others
have said that they will seek to allow the federal government to
negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for prices under the
program (Zhang, Wall Street Journal, 12/13).
Opinion Piece
"Unless the risk pool for Medicare grows and is
strengthened to include millions of younger, healthier workers, their
families and their kids, Medicare as we know it could die of old age,"
columnist Saul Friedman writes in a
Long Island Newsday opinion piece.
He adds, "And with out-of-pocket costs soaring and
people leaving Medicare" for private MA plans, the
Congressional Budget Office has "warned that original Medicare is in
danger of becoming another private insurance plan."
Friedman recommends passage of a bill (HR 676)
sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that would expand Medicare to
all U.S. residents, "absorb such programs as Medicaid, SCHIP, and be
paid for by taxes and premiums."
The bill would "save $300 billion a year in
administrative costs, for it would deny insurance companies a role,"
Friedman writes, adding, "Getting over that hurdle may be why HR 676 has
gotten so little publicity."
According to Friedman, the bill might "not pass,
but it should have a place in the coming discussion" (Friedman, Long
Island Newsday, 12/13).
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