NurseWeek

Bush unveils drug plan for Medicare

By Keith W. Murrow
Health24News
September 6, 2000


	You've read the article. Now tell us what you think. Related Sites Medicare information Health policy information from the American Medical Student Association

Washington (H24N). Republican candidate for the White House Texas Gov. George W. Bush announced his $158 billion plan to provide a prescription drug benefit to Medicare during a ceremony in Allentown, Pa.

Bush, who received harsh criticism last week from his Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore, for not supplying the nation with specifics on his prescription drug plan, laid out a detailed plan that would cover the prescription drug costs of at least a quarter of all senior citizens.

Bush called for "modernization" of Medicare, blaming the bureaucracy associated with the government-funded health insurance program for failing to cover tests for brain tumors and requiring an "act of Congress" before prostate screenings were allowed.

"Its regulations run over 100,000 pages – three times more pages of regulations than the IRS – making Medicare rigid, and sluggish and slow to change," Bush told the crowd during his announcement.

Bush proposes spending $110 billion in 10 years to modernize Medicare. In addition, he proposes giving states $48 billion over a four-year period to help seniors pay for prescription drugs in the interim.

Under Bush’s 10-year, $110 billion dollar plan all seniors would have access to Medicare benefits as well as choice in which health care plan they would subscribe to.

Bush’s plan also allows for the full cost of Medicare premiums to be covered for those seniors living at or below 135 percent of poverty as well as subsidizing prescription drug costs for those seniors living between 135 percent and 175 percent of poverty.

Bush also said he supported new resources for Medicare, pledging funding over a 10-year period to make Medicare solvent, in part using money from the current budget surplus.

"My budget will double funding for Medicare – from $216 billion to $441 billion – over the next 10 years."

Gore and his campaign criticized Bush’s plan for leaving too many people without insurance.

"The Bush plan leaves millions of seniors without any coverage," Ron Klain, a Gore advisor said. "It is a plan of, by and for the drug companies."

Klain went on to accuse Bush of not being able to afford to pay for the proposals in his proposed budget.

"Governor Bush cannot even pay for this inadequate plan because he squanders so much of the [national budget] surplus on his tax cut for the wealthy."

Currently, there are an estimated 40 million people in the Medicare program, an estimated 25 million of whom have some sort of prescription drug coverage, while the remaining seniors are without any coverage whatsoever.