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Drug makers support reformed Medicare plan
Posted
1-24-2000 Washington. Pharmaceutical industry leaders recently met with White House officials to express their desire to work with the Clinton administration in proposing a plan to provide senior citizens with Medicare coverage of prescription drugs. The pharmaceutical industry's willingness to consider a Medicare prescription drug benefit is not new, and in fact, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association (PhRMA) expressed support for such coverage last year as part of an effort to modernize the Medicare program. The major difference now is that the trade group would support incremental steps for drug coverage that could later be integrated into a reformed Medicare program. "Our ultimate goal has not changed," said PhRMA spokesperson Jeff Trewhitt. "We still strongly support expanded drug coverage under an improved Medicare program that is fundamentally reformed." He said that the industry group has become pragmatic and is more flexible, partially because it realizes that comprehensive Medicare reform could be a couple of years away. "There are too many senior citizens who need improved drug access now," Trewhitt added. Other factors have played a role in the industry's overtures to the administration, he noted. Congress is coming back into session, and the Medicare reform and prescription drug coverage debate is likely to be on the agenda; the presidential campaigns are starting in earnest; and the president's upcoming State of the Union address is likely to mention the issue. At least one senior citizens advocacy group, the National Council of Senior Citizens, expressed skepticism that the pharmaceutical industry was serious about promoting prescription drug coverage for seniors. Patrick Burns, a spokesperson for the group, said that the industry had offered no concrete plan to extend coverage to those who lack it. "It's a classic kind of smokescreen deal. If you're serious about moving legislation forward, you actually say what it is you want to do," he said.
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