May/June 2006

The federal Rx program has denied medications to poor seniors, and so far 26 states have been forced to enact legislation to provide prescription coverage to low-income seniors.

What America needs:

A simple, sensible solution to health care

At bargaining tables across America, employers are telling unions that skyrocketing health care costs are making them uncompetitive.

And at kitchen tables across America, working families are trying to juggle bills to pay rising health care costs.

Nearly everyone agrees America’s health care system is a mess. But there’s little agreement on what to do about it.

A good example of how not to solve the health care crisis is the Medicare prescription drug plan. Seniors are so confused by the large number of plans to choose from that millions who are eligible have not even signed up.

The federal Rx program has denied medications to poor seniors, and so far 26 states have been forced to enact legislation to provide prescription coverage to low-income seniors.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies can raise prices at any time and the government has no right to negotiate lower prices.

What sense does it make that the Department of Veterans Affairs has the right to negotiate lower drug prices but the Medicare Rx plan is prohibited from doing so?

Additionally, the plans can change the drugs that are covered at any time, but those eligible cannot change plans until next year.

What is even more worrisome is that the Rx plan has a “doughnut hole” that denies coverage to seniors for drug costs between $2,250 and $5,100.

Now take a look at Medicare.

One plan covers everyone older than 65. Seniors can choose their own doctor and medical facilities. Medicare has price controls in place. And the administrative costs are only about 3 percent of the total costs of the program.

The success of Medicare is that it is a simple, sensible program that covers everyone equally.

The failure of the Medicare prescription drug plan is that it is expensive, confusing and unfair.

Americans have been debating a health care solution for decades, and yet we are no closer to a solution.

Instead of complicating the debate, perhaps we should look at the simple and sensible health care plan that is already working and figure out how we can extend the Medicare plan to every man, woman and child in the United States.