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Recently, alarm bells were sounded when the Center
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - the
federal agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid -
reported that Medicare Part B premiums for
outpatient care are expected to substantially
increase next year by 17.5 percent. I am deeply
concerned that seniors enrolled in traditional
Medicare will be forced to shoulder this burden
placing their ability to obtain affordable health
care at risk.
Nearly 40 years since the Medicare program was
enacted - and after the more than 5 years that I
worked to add a prescription drug benefit to
Medicare - seniors’ health care is again being
threatened by skyrocketing health care and drug
costs.
We have learned from CMS that most of the
increase in Part B premiums is a result of
eliminating a scheduled 4.5 percent cut in provider
payments and, instead, increasing payments to
providers by 1.5 percent with Medicare recipients
carrying the burden. While it is critical that we
ensure providers are being compensated for their
efforts, we cannot continue to raise premiums for
our Medicare recipients to finance escalating health
care costs.
What is also disconcerting is that CMS detailed
that a small portion of the Part B increase will
subsidize managed care plans (MedicareAdvantage) -
which amounts to $1.75 of the $11.60 monthly premium
increase. This is simply unacceptable and is
tantamount to forcing the majority of seniors who
continue to use the trusted fee-for-service Medicare
to partially subsidize the minority of seniors in
private plans. I have long fought to maintain
traditional Medicare for our seniors and will
continue to press for accountability to protect the
fee-for-service model from any potential erosion at
the expense of private health plans.
I have long said that the Medicare Modernization
Act that passed Congress last Fall is far from
perfect. As we move forward, I remain committed to
developing solutions that are both cost-effective
and beneficiary-friendly. As a senior member of the
Senate Finance Committee which holds jurisdiction
over the Medicare program, I believe we must look to
ways to not only shore up Medicare, but provide
relief to our seniors from the escalating costs of
health care.
One such immediate remedy is lowering the costs
of prescription drugs. I have worked extensively
with my Senate colleagues in writing legislation
that will provide cheaper prescription drugs to both
Medicare beneficiaries and those not in Medicare.
Joining with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), I introduced
a bill - the "Medicare Enhancement for Needed Drugs
Act" (MEND) - that would allow the Secretary of the
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to
negotiate drug discounts. The Medicare program, just
as the Defense Department and the Veterans
Administration already, must be permitted to
negotiate drug costs for its beneficiaries.
Equally critical in our quest to secure
affordable prescription drugs is to open our markets
to allow the importation of medicines from countries
with equivalent safety regimes as ours like Canada,
Great Britain, and Australia.. As the lead
Republican co-sponsor with Senator Byron Dorgan
(D-ND) of the only bipartisan prescription drug
importation bill in the Senate - the "Pharmaceutical
Market Access and Drug Safety Act" - we clearly can
import prescription drugs at a level of safety
superior to all others, including our current
domestic market. With approval by the Food & Drug
Administration (FDA), pharmaceuticals entering the
U.S. will be properly labeled, prescribed, tracked
and traced. Americans are not threatened by safe
imported drugs; they are jeopardized by a lack of
access to affordable medication, with our inaction
only exacerbating the problem.
There have already been measurable successes in
the enactment of the Medicare Modernization Act,
certainly including access for the first time to
prescription drugs by many seniors who were forced
to cut their pills in half or forgo paying their
bills because their medications were so
prohibitively expensive. But greater progress can
certainly be achieved. Seniors are worried about
this new drug benefit with far too few signing up.
There have been too many misconceptions and false
assumptions hindering the full success of the
discount drug card program - all of which only serve
to devalue the benefit and harm seniors.
It is time that we provide clarity for our
seniors, informing them of the services available
that will lower the costs of their prescription
drugs and strengthen the overall integrity of the
Medicare entitlement. We’ve already taken great
steps forward - we must not now squander our
momentum.
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