: PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN IS ABSURD AND EXPENSIVE BOONDOGGLE

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Tuesday, December 02, 2003 12:55 AM

PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN IS ABSURD AND EXPENSIVE BOONDOGGLE

 

 

>

> PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN IS ABSURD AND EXPENSIVE BOONDOGGLE

> Sun Nov 30, 7:43 PM ET

>

> By Cynthia Tucker

>

> Certain myths live large in American politics. Black voters are liberal.

> " Christian " means evangelical or biblical literalist. The elderly struggle

> to pay for their prescriptions. All are demonstrably false; nevertheless,

> all are so deeply rooted in our political culture that they can't be

pulled

> up or killed off. But it's the last one that will bankrupt your

grandchildren.

>

> Even though statistics show that American children, as a group, are poorer

> than the elderly (who receive Social Security

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> sites) and Medicare), there has been no long-running and noisy campaign to

> pay for their prescriptions. Instead, the AARP has managed one of the best

> public relations scams since the leisure suit, persuading Democrats and,

> more recently, Republicans that a prescription drug plan should be added

to

> Medicare. It's a complex piece of legislation chock full of giveaways to

> industry, mostly drug companies.

>

> And it's going to cost plenty. Forget the $400 billion over 10 years that

> you've been hearing about. Focus on the costs after that. By the time the

> drug companies finish jacking up their prices, the price tag will be well

> into the trillions.

>

> By some estimates, the prescription drug benefit will cost $1.5 trillion

> between 2014 and 2023. The Medicare hospital benefit is already expected

to

> run out of money by 2026, after the baby boom generation has retired.

>

> This bill is so wrongheaded that it's hard to know where to begin. Lobbied

> heavily by pharmaceutical companies, which make substantial contributions

> to political campaigns, the Republican leadership decided not to allow

> Medicare to use its buying power to negotiate lower prices with drug

> companies. That borders on insane. It's something that huge private

> insurers and companies (like Sam's Club) do every day. But Medicare won't

> be allowed to do it, virtually guaranteeing that prices for prescriptions

> drugs -- already high -- will soar into the stratosphere.

>

> Here's another bit of insanity: The bill pays private insurance companies

> to take elderly patients. You know how one of the tenets of conservative

> philosophy is that private companies can always deliver a product better

> and cheaper? So why does the Medicare bill offer billions in subsidies to

> private insurers to induce them into the market? That's not competition;

> that's corporate welfare.

>

> Worse yet, the next generation will be stuck with a massive bill for an

> entitlement that meets no critical need. Many retirees can afford not only

> their prescriptions but also tours to New England to see the autumn leaves

> and cruises to Alaska. (Sorry, Mom.) According to recent estimates, 68

> percent of seniors spend less than $1,000 per year in out-of-pocket costs

> for prescriptions. Fifteen percent spend between $1,000 and $2,000.

>

> The other 17 percent have soaring out-of-pocket expenses and may genuinely

> need help, if they are poor. Congress should have set aside funds to help

> that small group only. Instead, middle-class retirees get a prescription

> drug benefit, and the poor and sickly, oddly, may be worse off.

>

> A small group of low-income elderly and disabled patients qualify for both

> Medicare and Medicaid, enabling them to get their prescriptions either

free

> or at very low cost. Under the new bill, many of them will end up paying

> more for their prescription drugs, according to the Center on Budget and

> Policy Priorities.

>

> Meanwhile, some 43 million Americans shy of retirement age -- many with

> young children -- have no health-care coverage at all, not for office

> visits or prescription drugs or preventive care such as mammograms. From

> middle-class professionals who cannot find full-time employment to poor

> workers shoved from Medicaid rolls by state budget cutbacks, the crisis of

> the uninsured is getting worse.

>

> So is the nation's debt. Grandpa's prescription bills will be paid by his

> grandchildren.

>

>

> Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta

> Journal-Constitution. She can be reached by e-mail:

> <cynthiacynthia.

>

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