Medicare drug price bill faces uncertain future

Supporters say it would provide beneficiaries with deep discounts. Opponents call it price controls.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Feb. 28, 2005.

Washington --A bill that would allow the Dept. of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices from manufacturers on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries appears to have run into a major roadblock.

Within days of the measure's reintroduction by a bipartisan group of senators, President Bush announced that he would veto any legislation that would prove restrictive to choice under the 2003 Medicare modernization law.

"I signed Medicare reform proudly, and any attempt to limit the choices of our seniors and to take away their prescription drug coverage under Medicare will meet my veto," Bush said.

While Bush did not specify which types of proposed changes would prompt his veto, the administration is on record as opposing the price negotiation bill. White House officials argue that it would limit Medicare beneficiaries' pharmaceutical options without producing notable savings.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.), one of the authors of the Medicare Enhancements for Needed Drugs (MEND) Act of 2005, took the announcement as a direct threat against the measure, which is identical to last year's bill.

"By refusing any improvements, the White House is writing a prescription for a program that cannot survive," he said. "I hope the president will reconsider his position."

Bush's stance on the Medicare law could allow him to block other attempts at trimming the ballooning price tag associated with the new drug benefit. Administration estimates now place the benefit's cost over the first 10 years of operation at more than $720 billion.