Democrats Assail Medicare Proposals

Democrats Assail Medicare Proposals

By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 24, 2003; Page A04


The race to find a compromise on Medicare prescription drug legislation hit a substantial snag yesterday as Senate Democrats warned they would not tolerate several changes, sought by the leader of the House-Senate negotiations, that would benefit private health plans and for the first time restrict government subsidies to the program.

Forty-one senators, including one Republican, sent a letter yesterday to President Bush, imploring him to intervene so that the negotiators, working to combine House and Senate Medicare bills, do not produce a deal that Democrats say the Senate would reject.

The most vehement protests centered on an aspect of the House bill that eventually would require the traditional version of the program to compete with private health plans based on price. Proponents of that competitive arrangement, known as premium support, say that it would encourage people to join private health plans and drive down costs; critics predict it would end up costing more for patients who remain in the traditional fee-for-service program, which now includes nearly 90 percent of the 40 million elderly and disabled Americans in Medicare.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9104-2003Oct23.html