Presumably, lawmakers recently created proposals that would
offer prescription drugs to all Medicare patients because
legislators thought they would be popular. After all, the first
wave of nearly 77 million baby boomers is set retire at the end of
the decade
How wrong they are: The
Washington Times reports that a coalition of more than 20
conservative and fiscal groups are urging lawmakers to scrap their
proposals, saying they are fiscally irresponsible and harmful to
seniors-the folks lawmakers say they're trying to help.
"The prescription drug
entitlement is an ill-considered proposal that ought to carry an
interaction warning for seniors and taxpayers," John Berthoud,
president of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation told the Times
Aug. 27.
Amen, says Heritage
Foundation health-care expert Robert Moffit. The House and
Senate bills would encourage employers to drop or scale back drug
coverage for their retirees and force them into Medicare, a
government-run program. "That will result in millions of seniors
losing their existing private coverage," Moffit says.
One way to fix this problem,
Moffit says, is simply to provide drug coverage to seniors who need
it. Studies show more than three-quarters of seniors already have
drug coverage. "There is no evidence…that there's any need
for a universal drug benefit," Moffit says.
Read more
Heritage Medicare research at heritage.org.