House Passes Medicare Bill in All-Night Session

Senate Takes Up Measure Today; Filibuster Threatened

November 24, 2003
The Medicare prescription drug bill goes to the Senate today (Monday) after winning a razor-thin victory in an all-night House session that ended Saturday morning with a 220-215 vote, mostly along party lines.

In a dramatic, last-minute maneuver, AARP threw its weight behind the bill, running full-page newspaper advertisements and network television spots in support of the measure, which would provide prescription drug benefits beginning in 2006 while opened Medicare to competition by government-subsidized private health plans.

The measure will now be taken up by the Senate, where Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) says he will attempt to mount a filibuster. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is returning from the Presidential campaign trail to support Kennedy.

Congress is rushing to adjourn by Thanksgiving, so time is tight and a filibuster could succeed in killing the measure for this year.

"In the nearly 40 years since Medicare was launched, this is hte most signifcant opportunity for any Congress to improve health coverage for our seniors," President Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.

"Republicans have offered up a Trojan horse, a deceptive gift intended to win their 40-year war against Medicare. This is the beginning of the end of Medicare as we know it," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House Democratic leader. She said the Republicans used "Florida-style" tactics to get the bill through the House.

Republican leaders and senior Administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, worked the House floor Friday night and Saturday morning, twisting arms and arguing their case.

Democrats generally opposed the bill, as did the most conservative Republicans, who see the measure as an expansion of an entitlement program and another notch in the national debt.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) called the bill "a sham" and said it "will take benefits away from retirees and the low-income." According to Clinton, "The real goal of the bill is to undermine Medicare. It's a big giveaway to the drug companies."

The bill provides the most generous assistance to those with low incomes and very high drug bills. After beneficiaries meet a $250 annual deductible, Medicare would cover 75 percent of drug costs up to $2,250. Coverage then stops until the beneficiary has spent $3,600 out of pocket, after which Medicare pays 95 percent of prescription costs.

For a more typical beneficiary, with drug costs of $2,000, Medicare would cover about two-thirds of the cost.

Premiums are espected to average about $35 per month, or $420 a year, in 2006.