Stark joins pharmacy suit over Bush Medicare Rx plan

Representative Pete Stark, the ranking Democrat on the US House ofRepresentatives' Ways and Means health subcommittee, is seeking to join the lawsuit launched by the National Association of Chain Drugstores and the National Community Pharmacists Association against President George W Bush's new Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card Program (Marketletter July 23).

Rep Stark says he wants to join the suit as a private beneficiary of Medicare. He has told Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson who, along with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Thomas Scully, has been named as defendant in the case, that he agrees with the suit's contention that the Program is illegal and was created in secret.