LETTERS
Prescription Benefit
One of the top priorities for Congress will be a prescription drug benefit to help seniors pay for their escalating healthcare costs.
Last session, the House came up with a sensible, cost-effective, plan that takes care of the needs of all seniors and in the most efficient way possible. Not only would it have provided a lifetime prescription drug benefit, it also would have strengthened and improved Medicare. Unfortunately, it did not pass the Senate, but with the new Republican majority it will have a better chance of getting through both houses of Congress.
The use of new prescription medications over the past three decades has revolutionized the treatment of diseases and dramatically improved the quality of life for patients in many ways. As most private health plans responded to this revolution and incorporated prescription drug coverage as part of their basic benefit packages, Medicare failed to keep up with current needs.
Most importantly, the House plan provides options. It gives seniors choices to make sure they get a plan that best suits their individual needs. A large percentage of seniors are already covered with drug benefits either from where they work or plans that they have. Those who have a drug benefit already will not have to swap their private programs if they don’t want to; however, if they have catastrophic costs, then they will be covered. What we do not need is a bureaucratic, one-size-fits all program that dictates what medications seniors can and cannot have.
A prescription drug benefit would be available for all seniors for around $34 a month. The standard benefit begins with a $250 deductible and it will pay around 80% of costs up to the first $1,000 and 50% up to $2,000. Seniors who meet the low-income criteria will pay less than $5 per prescription. All participants will be protected against catastrophic costs, with out-of-pocket expenditures capped at $4,500 per year.
However, a new drug benefit will not mean anything if the Medicare program is not secure and working properly. Accordingly the House plan addresses a number of critical provider reimbursement issues to keep the Medicare program strong. These changes should help to stabilize this program and allow it to continue to provide greater competition and treatment options for beneficiaries who elect to participate in it.
These changes improve payments to doctors and also reduce regulatory and paperwork burdens so that physicians can spend more time administering care.
Ed Royce
(Royce is the Republican congressman from Fullerton.)
State Budget
Taxpayers are alarmed and disappointed that Governor Gray Davis is proposing a sales tax increase to help close the state’s budget gap.
Raising taxes should not be considered until policy-makers take serious steps to contain spending and address waste and fraud that are draining away billions of tax dollars. Raising taxes will have destabilizing effects on an already beleaguered economy. Raising taxes without tighter controls over spending would essentially be underwriting further out-of-control budgeting.
News media in California have reported more than $8 billion in misspending. According to press accounts, California’s food stamps error rate is the worst of any state in the nation, according to various media reports in recent years, and California’s child support enforcement system is so deficient that the federal government continues to penalize the state many millions of dollars.
In this context, tax increases cannot be the first option.
Larry McCarthy
President
California Taxpayers’ Association
Sacramento
