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| Wilson Supports Prescription Drug Benefit and a Fair Medicare Payment System |
April 08, 2003 |
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Washington, DC-In an Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing today, Congresswoman Heather Wilson spoke about the need to provide a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. In her remarks, she stated that any bill considered in the House should be available to all beneficiaries, it should be voluntary, it should give seniors choices, and we should give the most help to those who are poor or very sick. Wilson also stated that in addition to creating a benefit, the Congress should look at innovative ways to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Such proposals could include competition with generics, and allowing Medicare to be imported from FDA approved facilities abroad.
“The need for a prescription drug benefit under Medicare is one of the issues I hear about most often from New Mexicans,” said Wilson. “We passed a bill last year; we need to make sure we craft a bill that will pass both houses this Congress.”
Wilson criticized the current Medicare payment formulas that “adjust” the value of physicians time based on where they live, making it difficult to recruit and retain doctors in about a dozen low-reimbursement states.
“We don’t pay into Medicare based on where we live; we should not be denied access to health care because of where we live,” Wilson said.
Medicare currently lacks a comprehensive benefit to cover outpatient drugs. While as many as two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries receive at least partial coverage for drug costs through employer-sponsored programs, Medicare Choice plans, or state Medicaid programs, approximately one-third of Medicare-eligible beneficiaries lack any drug coverage at all. These seniors often face significant out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs because of their inability to access the market-based discounts negotiated by health care plans and insurers. One of Wilson’s goals for a Medicare prescription drug benefit is to offer extra help to low-income seniors.
A Medicare prescription drug benefit bill passed the House in the last Congress, but the Senate failed to pass a bill.
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