Re: Pricey Prescription

Washington Times = Moonie Bullshit


"Steve Dufour" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> WASHINGTON TIMES
> 11/28/2003
>
> Pricey prescription
>
>
> By Debra J. Saunders
>
>
>
>     There are reasons to support the Medicare bill, passed by the
> House and the Senate. Poor seniors should get relief they desperately
> need. Congress should reverse a pending 1.5 percent reduction in
> payments to physicians who care for elderly patients.
>     Still, Tom Coburn would have voted against it.
>     Dr. Coburn is an Oklahoma physician who was elected to the House
> in 1994. He continued to practice family medicine and obstetrics while
> he served as a Republican congressman, until 2000 when he chose not to
> run for re-election, in keeping with his campaign pledge to serve only
> three terms.
>     Taking a break from his patients - and from promoting his new
> book, "Breach of Trust, How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders"
> - Dr. Coburn got on the telephone to give his take on the bill. As he
> sees it, the Medicare bill is another big-spending bill from a
> big-spending Republican-led Congress and a big-spending Republican
> president.
>     "It's pretty sad, isn't it? There's not a choice any more about
> controlling the size of the federal government. It's not Democrat vs.
> Republican," said Dr. Coburn. It's careerist vs. non-careerist, and
> the careerists carry the day.
>     "I deal with seniors every day who have to make a choice between
> supper and their medicine," Dr. Coburn added. He wants the government
> to do something, but he believes regulators should reduce what drug
> companies charge American consumers. I doubt his prescription would
> work - but at least Dr. Coburn's plan would not inflate the national
> debt.
>     The bill's $400 billion price tag isn't credible. For one thing,
> Washington inevitably will expand benefits - that's why the AARP
> supports the bill. It's the camel's nose in the tent.
>     As the bill stands, seniors who earn less than $12,123 annually
> would not have to pay premiums or deductibles. That's good. But other
> seniors who enroll in the program would pay a $35 monthly premium, a
> $250 deductible and a co-payment of 25 percent for the first $2,250 in
> drugs each year. Seniors would then pay all of the next $2,850 in drug
> costs - this gap is called the "doughnut hole," because there are no
> benefits in the middle - until they pay $3,600, when Medicare would
> pick up 95 percent of remaining drug costs.
>     As the fiscal-watchdog Concord Coalition argues, there's no policy
> reason for the doughnut hole. It exists solely to keep the tab under a
> $400 billion limit. Which means, Dr. Coburn and the Concord Coalition
> warned, it's inevitable that Congress will boost benefits and fill the
> hole.
>     Then, some day, Congress will have to increase the payroll taxes
> of 25-year-olds to bankroll the drug bill for seniors who think that
> only other people should have to pay for their medicine.
>     President Bush was right to ask Congress to authorize $87 billion
> in spending to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But
> the move seems to have made him feel a need to boost domestic
> spending. He's so anxious to get the credit of giving other people's
> money to seniors during the 2004 campaign that he has forgotten about
> the future beyond the campaign. House Republicans were so eager to
> pass the bill before the election heats up that they gave billions to
> private employers and care providers. Anything for a win.
>     As Stephen Moore of the tightwad-right Club for Growth noted,
> "Republicans have lost their fiscal conscience. It's not true that we
> have an anti-big government party. We have two big-government parties,
> and they're in a contest to see who can outspend the other. This is
> putting us on the path to national bankruptcy."
>     Congress should have passed a bill to provide prescription drug
> coverage for poor seniors. Instead, it was goodies for all. No senior
> voter left behind.
>
>     Debra J. Saunders is a nationally syndicated columnist.