US Democrats launch Rx drug cover plan

US Democrat legislators have speedily launched their own proposal forMedicare prescription drug coverage for seniors, hot on the heels of President George W Bush sending to Congress his Immediate Helping Hand initiative (Marketletter February 5). Critics have said that the President's plan would do too little for too few people and would take too long to implement, while Democrat Senator Paul Wellstone described it as "a great leap sideways."

The Democrat proposal has been put together by the Progressive Caucus, a group of more than 50 Members of Congress. Their plan would cover 80% of prescription drug costs for all seniors under Medicare, representing around 40 million people. Despite this greater coverage, the Caucus members say the cost of implementing it would be about the same as for the Bush plan, as its financing would include a number of cost-containment provisions such as bulk drug purchasing to obtain large discounts and allowing the re-importation of US-made drugs from overseas.

Legislation permitting re-imports was signed into law by President Bill Clinton last October but his Health and Human Services Secretary, Donna Shalala, refused to back its implementation because of the "serious flaws and loopholes" in the final law, a decision which was supported by Pres Clinton (Marketletter January 1 & 8). However, the Democrats' new plan would add safety provisions such as requiring drugmakers to supply Food and Drug Administration-approved labels for re-imported drugs.