Two Republican Senators have introduced legislation that will cap annual Medicare drug expenditures. Here’s the article from “California HealthLine” –
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Thursday introduced legislation that would cap spending on the Medicare prescription drug benefit to the original Congressional Budget Office estimate of $395 billion over 10 years, CongressDaily reports. The new CBO estimate for the benefit is $849 billion between 2006 and 2015.
The bill would establish annual spending caps for the benefit, and the president would be required to submit legislation to scale back the benefit if spending goes beyond that amount. Graham said, “I was always concerned the projected costs of the Medicare prescription drug benefit would turn out to be wrong. Even I was surprised at how quickly and dramatically the projected costs of the program spiked” (CongressDaily, 3/11).
This is rather significant, to say the least. There are clearly cracks in the Republican wall, cracks that appear to be generated by deep concern over the cost of this huge entitlement.
As one wag put it when talking about the Medicare drug bill, “I didn’t realize conservatives could be THAT compassionate!”
Mar
11
