http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8052

Unhealthy Benefits  

Jeff Blum is the executive director of USAction.

President Bush and the Republican leadership are trying to steamroll an awful Medicare prescription plan through Congress this month. Progressives need to stop the steamroller in its tracks, starting today.

The Senate is now discussing a proposal from Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Republican chair and ranking Democratic minority member of the Senate Finance Committee. The Grassley-Baucus bill, which has White House endorsement, is an insult to seniors, and leaves them at the mercy of the drug and insurance companies.

A senior who now spends $1,000 on prescription drug coverage would spend $1,057.50 under the Grassley-Baucus bill; that's right, it would cost them money. A senior with high drug costs, say $5,000, would still have to pay $3,695 for prescriptions. Plus, prescription drug coverage would be offered through private insurance plans, not through Medicare.

The president is trying to pretend that the plan gives seniors the same prescription drug benefits that members of Congress get. In fact, Bush claims Congress has a choice of private insurance plans, so seniors would too. Maybe -- but the fly in the ointment is that Congress gets a good benefit. For example, a member of Congress (earning, incidentally, $154,700) who uses $1,000 of prescription drugs only has to pay $250. Under Grassley-Baucus, a senior would have to pay $637.50 to get prescriptions filled -- plus the $420 premium.

In short, the benefit stinks.

The good news is opposition is building fast. AARP has begun running TV ads opposing the benefits included in the deal. On June 6, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sent a memo urging opposition to the plan. On the same day, USAction delivered 600 letters opposing the deal to Sens. Kennedy and Daschle. On June 9, USAction and the Campaign for America's Future sent action alerts to their lists.

But there's still a colossal fight ahead. The benefits under this bill -- and every other bill Congress is considering -- don't start until 2006. This allows the president and members of Congress to campaign in 2004 claiming they passed a Medicare prescription drug benefit -- before people on Medicare find out how much they'll have to pay under this new, dismal plan.

Every member of Congress ran for office promising to deliver a Medicare prescription drug bill. But they also remember what happened in 1989, when they passed a catastrophic drug bill. That sparked a grassroots revolt around the country, which eventually forced Congress to repeal the legislation. Progressives need to create that firestorm again, this time before the bill is passed. We need to show members of Congress that seniors and people with disabilities -- and their families -- are rebelling against the high costs, lousy benefits and sellouts to the drug and insurance industries.

Seniors deserve the same affordable prescription drug benefit as members of Congress. The Grassley-Baucus deal doesn't even come close. The plan doesn't make prescriptions affordable. It leaves seniors at the mercy of HMOs, the insurance industry and drug industry. And it has to be stopped.


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Published: Jun 10 2003