WASHINGTON - The Bush administration seems to have finally realized its folly in rushing through the new Medicare prescription benefit program and is now looking to simplify the program. However the initial proposals are unlikely to win any admirers.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a 39-page memorandum to insurers and other agencies involved in the program seeking ways to simplify it and perhaps limit the drug options. This is an indirect admission that the program, which trumpeted the vast array of choices available to nearly 21 million Americans, has serious problems in execution.
The agency has proposed limiting the number of drugs offered by a company per region to just two. Currently, insurers have three drugs as a limit and since each region has in excess of 10 insurers, seniors are bewildered by the wide array of drugs, sometimes more than 40, on offer.
But CMMS spokesman Gary Karr refused to acknowledge that the proposals meant that the government was admitting that the critics were right, "It's simply asking for comment," Karr stressed. "Earlier, there were predictions we would not have enough plans. That's clearly not the case now. The question is will it still be of service to beneficiaries if you had fewer. Again, it's not a commitment."
Medicare advocacy groups, who criticized the plans, which went horribly awry in some instances, said that the proposal to limit the number of choices to two does not narrow the gap in a substantial manner, "Two lousy choices is no better than seven lousy choices," observed Diane Archer of the Medicare Rights Center.
However Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif, who is a fierce critic of the drug plans felt that asking for comment was a step in the right direction, "It is too bad this recognition comes 2 1/2 years after passage of the law, and two months into implementation," he said.
