Letter to the House Regarding Medicare

May 12, 2003

Dear Representative:

As you consider legislation to provide Medicare beneficiaries relief from skyrocketing expenditures for prescription drugs, we urge you to provide a meaningful prescription drug benefit and strengthen Medicare so that it will continue to serve the nation's seniors and disabled.

Specifically, we urge you to enact legislation that:

Guarantees that all Medicare beneficiaries will have access to an affordable prescription drug benefit, with a generous uniform benefit. Medicare beneficiaries should not have to sacrifice their freedom of choice of doctor in order to get affordable coverage for their prescriptions.
Reins in prescription drug expenditures by speeding the introduction of generics and assuring that taxpayer dollars are used to purchase the most cost-effective medications. The last thing that taxpayers need is a bill that is a blank check payable to the pharmaceutical industry. Assuring greater value for prescription drug dollars will help reduce the out-of-pocket costs for all seniors and disabled, even in expenditure ranges that are not directly subsidized by the new program.
Builds prescription drug coverage into Medicare, so that prescription drugs are treated like other needed health care services such as doctor visits and hospital stays. A workable framework that strengthens Medicare is essential. A separate drug benefit offered on a voluntary basis by a reluctant insurance industry is a recipe for disaster since it will fail to deliver the relief desperately needed.

H.R. 1199, the "Medicare Rx Drug Benefit and Discount Act of 2003" goes a long way toward meeting the needs of seniors and the disabled. Its moderate cost-sharing, limitation on out-of-pocket drug expenses, and guarantee of benefits would provide beneficiaries with affordable coverage. Its provisions to rein in prescription drug expenditures by speeding introduction of generics and through a pricing structure that encourages beneficiaries to use cost-effective drugs would help assure that taxpayer funds are spent carefully. The addition of a provision for more objective analysis of the comparative effectiveness of medicines, in order to help pharmacy contractors build sound evidence-based preferred drug lists, would further strengthen the bill.

Sincerely,

Gail Shearer
Director, Health Policy Analysis
Consumers Union Washington, DC Office

View Files Sorted By Office: Consumers Union OPI, New York - Washington DC Office
West Coast Regional Office - Southwest Regional Office - Consumer Policy Institute

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