Lawmakers agree on drug card discount plan for Medicare

Debate still awaits on other provisions

By David Espo, Associated Press, 9/10/2003

WASHINGTON -- Congressional negotiators voted yesterday to establish a temporary discount drug card program for Medicare recipients, hoping to fill a gap in health coverage until a comprehensive pharmaceutical benefit can take effect later in the decade.

Bush administration officials said seniors would receive discounts of 15 percent or more on their drug bills under the program, which would begin in 2004 and run through the end of 2005. Additionally, lower income seniors would receive a federal subsidy of $600 annually.

The agreement on a discount card, as well as a variety of other relatively noncontroversial items, were the first important fruits of compromise talks by members of the House and Senate working on politically charged legislation to overhaul Medicare while adding a prescription drug benefit.

"So far we have seen a willingness to work together in a bipartisan, bicameral way," said Representative Bill Thomas, a California Republican who is chairing the talks. Said Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa: "I think this spirit can continue."

But several Democrats expressed concern that Republicans were talking only among themselves on more contentious issues that will define Medicare for the next generation or longer.

Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who played a key role in developing bipartisan legislation in the Senate, pointedly urged Republicans to work across party lines, coupling his comments with a warning:

"I'd rather have a good bill, but no bill is better than a bad bill." Some Republican aides have spoken openly in recent days about trying to fashion a bill that passes in the House with little Democratic help, then dare Democrats to filibuster it in the Senate. Under the program, retail pharmacies, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other private organizations would be eligible to seek the government's stamp of approval for their discount card and allowed to charge a $30 annual enrollment fee.Beneficiaries could use their cards at any participating pharmacy and receive a discount negotiated in advance by the company that issued the card. Typically discounts would apply only to drugs making up the formulary, or list of preferred drugs, maintained by the firm issuing the card. At the same time, officials said the legislation included several provisions designed to prod the companies into making their cards as attractive as possible. Among them is the opportunity to receive a formal Medicare stamp of approval, for example, a blessing that presumably could mean millions of customers for the card as well as possibly other products.