HE WASN'T KIDDING THIS TIME EITHER?:

Medicare Officials Insisting on Wider Choices in Drug Benefits (ROBERT PEAR, 6/15/05, NY Times)

As companies devise insurance policies for the new Medicare drug program, federal officials are pressing them to offer a surprisingly generous array of prescription drug choices, according to industry executives.

As a result, experts say, the Medicare drug benefit, which begins in January, is shaping up to give beneficiaries access to a larger number and a wider variety of prescription drugs than are now available to many workers and retirees with private employer-sponsored health insurance.

Medicare will rely on private health plans to deliver drug benefits to the elderly and the disabled. Insurers worry that Medicare officials' insistence on a robust drug benefit will make it hard for them to control the costs of the program. But the officials say their policies will ensure that all 41 million beneficiaries have affordable access to the drugs they need.

"Medicare officials are flexing their muscles," said John K. Gorman, a former Medicare official who is now a consultant to many insurers. "They are requiring prescription drug plans to cover more drugs than anyone expected. They are establishing a gold standard for access to drugs in a number of therapeutic classes."

By the time they figure out that George Bush means what he says he'll be out of office.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 15, 2005 7:14 AM