Eliminating the Medicare [Part-D]onut Hole & Other Fixes

Posted by on November 14, 2006 at 02:41 PM

There is a lot on the agenda plate for the new Democratic-controlled Congress to tackle. Years of the Republican Congress rubber-stamping the Bush Administration and selling out to corporate special interests have produced legislation that serves big business instead of the broader electorate. But Democrats want to change that. Soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi has outlined her vision for the first 100 hours of a Democratic Congress, which includes passing the 9/11 commission recommendations and raising the minimum wage, as well as instituting ethics reform to "drain the swamp" of the Culture of Corruption that has plagued the Capitol under Republican rule.

On that agenda is also a desire to fix the disastrous Medicare bill passed by the Republicans which prevents the federal government from negotiating lower drug prices for seniors.

Today, the NYT Editorial looks at the problem and offers up some insight:

Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, says he does not want the power to negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, but Democrats should give it to him anyway.

The Democrats have pledged to move on the issue as soon as they take control of Congress. If they succeed, it would allow an important test of the hypothesis that government negotiators can wring lower prices from the manufacturers than those obtained by the private drug plans and pharmaceutical benefit managers that currently negotiate on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.

The 2003 Medicare drug law — written by a Republican-dominated Congress in thrall to big drug company contributors — explicitly prohibits the federal government from negotiating drug prices or establishing a list of preferred drugs.

The Democrats are only beginning to explore what they want the government to do.

Read the whole thing....

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