It's official. There are hypocrites in both the House and
Senate.
Key senators are sponsoring legislation that would exempt
federal retirees (including retired senators) from the Medicare
prescription drug bill they approved earlier this summer. They are
joining their colleagues in the House, who passed similar
legislation recently.
The policy: Whatever prescription drug benefit Congress produces
under Medicare "reform" (it's currently being hammered out in a
Capitol Hill committee), it will apply to every senior citizen --
except those who worked for the government.
"That tells you a lot about the value of the proposed Medicare
drug benefit," write Heritage Foundation health-care experts Robert Moffit and Derek
Hunter in a .
It sure does. But their actions are understandable: Under the
congressional proposals, more than one out of every three seniors
with drug coverage from their former employers would be dumped from
that coverage and put into the new government drug program,
according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Meanwhile, federal workers have the Federal Employees Health
Benefits Program, where they can choose from at least a dozen
different health plans offering drug coverage. As Moffit and Hunter
write: "They clearly want no part of their own Medicare handiwork
to affect their own coverage in retirement."
Read and other Medicare
research.
For more information or to receive an e-mail version of
"Medicare Maladies," e-mail medicaremaladies@heritage.org
or call Heritage Media Services at (202) 675-1761.