STUPAK : MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BILL SHORTCHANGES SENIORS

WASHINGTON –  Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, decried the Medicare prescription drug bill that passed the House by just one vote in the early morning hours today as the first step toward privatizing Medicare and a failure at helping rural seniors.  Stupak voted no on the bill, which is H.R. 1.

             “This bill does not offer meaningful benefits now,” Stupak said.  “It is more a giveaway to HMOs and insurance companies than it is a bill to help seniors, especially in areas like northern Michigan where the rural population is not large enough to attract for-profit private insurance companies.”

             “We had a Democratic substitute bill that would have started coverage next year.  H.R. 1 does not take effect until 2006.   The Democratic substitute would not require home health care co-payments, would not increase Part B deductibles and would not cut hospital inpatient payments.  All of these elements are in H.R. 1, which passed by the narrowest of margins.”

             The Democratic substitute would also have increased the payment floor for rural physicians, increased payments up to 25 percent for smaller, low-volume hospitals and increased Medicare funding for rural facilities, rural ambulance payments and rural home health agencies.

             There are 9.2 million Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas nationwide, and eighty percent of them have no access to any Medicare HMO.  The non-partisan group Public Citizen says that more than 2 million seniors have been dropped from HMO coverage over the past five years. H.R. 1 has no effective protection against insurers who would cherry pick only healthier, more-profitable enrollees, leaving older, less healthy seniors who need more expensive care marooned in a dwindling pool of traditional Medicare participants. 

             “Under the bill passed this morning,” Stupak added, “seniors will have to use private insurance companies, pay a premium at whatever level private plans come up with, and deal with substantial gaps in prescription drug coverage.”

               H.R. 1 has a deductible of $250, then covers 80% of drug costs up to $2,000 per year.  After a senior’s costs hit $2,000, there would be no coverage at all until total drug expenditures reached $4,900. Seniors with drug costs that fall into this gap will not get any help with medication costs for a significant part of every year, but they will still have to pay monthly premiums even when they are not eligible for any help.

             H.R. 1 has no guaranteed benefits, no specified premiums, no required list of drugs to be covered and no assurance that coverage will not preclude use of local pharmacies.  According to The Commonwealth Fund, between 2001 and 2002, the percentage of Medicare HMOs that limited their coverage to generic drugs more than tripled.  Plans will change, seniors will have only a one-year commitment from any plan, and there will be no stability or security.

             “As bad as this bill is, what is worse is the refusal of the House leadership to permit any meaningful amendments,” Stupak summed up. “The comments of [House Ways and Means Chairman] Bill Thomas (R-CA) on June 25 are enlightening.”

             Thomas said, “To those who say that [the bill] would end Medicare as we know it, our answer is: We certainly hope so.  Old-fashioned Medicare isn’t very good.”

             “That kind of thinking and the bill passed this morning present a serious threat to our seniors.  It is the beginning of privatization of Medicare,” Stupak said.  “It is important to note that the House Republican bill differs greatly from the Senate prescription drug bill.  The two will have to be reconciled.  It is my hope that in conference, a bill looking more like the Senate bill without the gaps in coverage will emerge.”