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Clinton budget aims to restructure Medicare
Posted
2-14-2000 Washington. President Clinton's final budget, delivered to Congress last week, includes a laundry list of health-related initiatives he wants lawmakers to approve this year. The major initiatives included in the fiscal 2001 budget would overhaul Medicare and expand access to health insurance for the estimated 5 million of the 44 million Americans who currently lack coverage. The Medicare proposal, in addition to adding a prescription drug benefit, would modernize Medicare's core fee-for-service program and restructure Medicare's private options. Separate from the Medicare reform plan, the budget also includes beefed-up versions of two initiatives from previous budgets-a $3,000 tax credit for long-term care expenses, up from $1,000 last year-and a proposal to allow those ages 55 to 64 to "buy into"Medicare coverage. One initiative, added so late it did not make it into the official budget document, would set aside a $35 million reserve fund as part of the Medicare prescription drug program to help pay "catastrophic" drug costs. "Some seniors have absolutely enormous bills that they have no way of paying," Clinton said last Monday. "We believe there ought to be some kind of catastrophic protection, so we have set aside some funds to cover that." The budget also includes funding for a new, optional Medicaid benefit that would let states cover women if breast or cervical cancer is discovered through the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's screening program for low-income women. Among other new budget initiatives is a $10 million proposal that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to protect consumers purchasing prescription drugs over the Internet, and impose penalties on tobacco companies if youth smoking is not reduced.
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