E-mail this
statement
WASHINGTON -A congressional review released today of bills to offer prescription drug coverage to Medicare recipients shows the plan created by U.S. Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) offers the best benefits at the lowest cost.
"This is great news for America's seniors," Graham said. "We can afford to offer our seniors meaningful coverage that will actually meet their needs - not just raise their hopes. Now there is no excuse for Congress not to act immediately."
The congressionally approved budget for next fiscal year sets aside $300 billion for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
The Congressional Budget Office report found that Graham's universal and comprehensive prescription-drug package, introduced last year with Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.), would cost $318 billion.
In all likelihood Graham will reintroduce the bill with new cost-saving provisions that would lower the price tax even further, to approximately $312 billion.
This figure strikes a middle ground between plans that are too costly and those that cost less but have inadequate benefits.
Some Senators and interest groups are calling for plans that would cost as much as $1 trillion.
Numbers alone don't tell the whole story. A plan last year passed by House Republicans, estimated at $157 billion, would leave half of Medicare beneficiaries without prescription drug insurance.
A plan backed by Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) sounds good at first glance with an estimated price tag of $176 billion. That plan would cover fewer than two-thirds of those Medicare beneficiaries in need.
Both the House plan and Breaux-Frist cap the benefit at $1,050 - meaning the sickest seniors get the least help.
"There is a place between prohibitively expensive and not worth a dime," Graham said. "We have pinpointed where that is and should move forward before competing interests close in and obscure it."
The Senate Finance Committee is likely to begin examining the issue of prescription drugs in July.