Should drug entitlement be GOP legacy?

Human Events, Nov 24, 2003 by Freddoso, David

Negotiators from the House and Senate last week completed work on a bill to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit. With an estimated cost of more than $400 billion over the next ten years, and far more than that in subsequent years when the Baby Boom generation moves into retirement, the bill proposes the biggest new federal entitlement since the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.

Is this the legacy that Republicans want for the first Republican controlled government in five decades? HUMAN EVENTS Assistant Editor David Freddoso put that question to Republican senators.

Do you want the gravestone for this session, once it is over, to read, "This Republican government created the biggest new entitlement since LBJ"-the prescription drug entitlement?

SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R.-VA.): A gravestone? [Laughs] On the prescription drug Medicare bill, the Republicans, the leadership, the President of the United States and others said that it wanted to come to adopt and put into law a reasonable prescription drug plan as well as strengthen and improve Medicare. And we believe in keeping our promises. . . . Many have run [for office] making promises to strengthen and improve Medicare with the prescription drug benefit. . . . In the event this actually passes and becomes law, there will be those who say it's not enough. However, it does cover those who are happy to make decisions in choosing between eating or food versus prescription drugs. For others if they don't like it they can stick with whatever plan they currently have.

In principle, doesn't it seem like this goes in a direction that is different from what the whole 1994 election was about-wanting to get rid of entitlements, to end this dependency on government?

ALLEN: Well, but this is giving some other options, if we can get this Medical Savings Account passed. . .

That's watered down in the conference version.

ALLEN: But it's a toehold. It's a big improvement and that's to me exactly consistent with all of our principles. . . .Is it as much reform as everyone would like? No. But [I'm] not sure if we will have enough [votes] for this ultimately anyway, and the Democrats will block it because they hate the Medical Savings Accounts, they hate the private options and so forth. So, we will see how it works out.

For the first time in decades we are finishing a congressional session with a Republican Congress and a Republican President. Do you want the legacy of this Congress to be that it created a huge new entitlement, the prescription drug entitlement?

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R.-KAN.): Well, there is a prescription drug benefit issue, there are also the reforms in it to try to strengthen and to put Medicare on a path it can be sustained for years. . . .If that together is part of the legacy, that is a good legacy. A lot of people are questioning: Are the reforms sufficient? And the look of it appears to be that they are pretty strong. I have not gotten through the language yet, so I can't comment at that point. . . .

They are expecting a $400 billion price tag over ten years, and . . . Medicare is already going bankrupt over time. So how are the reforms going to. . . .

BROWNBACK: A number of us supported a provision to cap the expense of it at $400 billion. If it goes over that, rescissions must be made. I don't know if that made it into in the final version or not. Because it's been very problematic in the past, knowing exactly what something costs.

For the first time in 50 years we have a Republican Congress and a Republican President. Do you want the monument to this session to say, "This was the Republican government that created the biggest new entitlement since Johnson"-the Medicare prescription drugs plan?

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R.-IDAHO): Or you can say this is the Congress that faced a Medicare program that is ballooning out of control and has created competitive forces in it that will allow the free market to begin to contain and hold prices down. As an advocate of Medical Savings Accounts, which has always been limited by the liberals, it is now wide open. It is probably the most significant reform for the private sector in health care in 50 years. . . .. I am going to vote for this bill. . . .We can either look at it as major reform or a step in the right direction that will get better over time. And if we keep electing conservative forces to Congress those steps will all be in the right direction

Do you think this bill will actually decrease government dependency?

CRAIG: It has that possibility. . . . There are at least four factors in this bill that defy those who believe in a federalized health care system. Means testing-first time ever. Premium payments. Deductibles. All those kinds of things are in here. . . . So there are other ways of looking at it besides calling it the largest entitlement ever.

For the first time in about five decades we are going to finish a congressional session with a Republican Congress and a Republican President. Do you want the legacy of that session to be that it created the biggest new entitlement since Lyndon Johnson-the prescription drug benefit?