Congress exempts itself from its drug plan.

National Review Online ^ | 7/14/2003 | Derek Hunter and Robert Moffit

[tralfaz7]

Not Good Enough Congress exempts itself from its drug plan.

By Robert Moffit & Derek Hunter

Both houses of Congress recently passed separate Medicare "reform" bills designed to provide prescription drugs to all seniors.

But if the bills are so good for the rest of us, why are lawmakers desperately trying to exempt federal retirees, including retired members of Congress?

The House recently passed a bill (H.R. 2631) that will guarantee the prescription-drug benefits federal retirees get from their private health plans — inoculating former federal employees against the impact of the Medicare prescription-drug bill Congress just enacted for the rest of America.

Under the bill, every federal retiree can rest assured that his drug benefit will be at least as valuable as the ones that active federal employees have available to them now — ones these employees get to choose from a variety of competing private health plans. According to the New York Times, federal employees now get drug benefits worth about 50 percent more than those contained in the Medicare bills recently passed by the Congress.

Millions of retired Americans with drug coverage from private employers won't be so lucky. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if either version of the congressional Medicare bills becomes law, roughly one out of every three private-sector retirees would lose the drug coverage their former employer now provides and would be dumped into the new government drug benefit.

Millions of seniors would lose the private coverage they've known and trusted most of their adult lives and be forced into a government-run program that offers significantly poorer benefits with higher out-of-pocket costs.

Rep. Thomas Davis (R., Va.), the sponsor of the House bill, told Congress Daily AM this special exemption for federal retirees was necessary because the government must have "the right incentives to attract and retain the best and the brightest." This reasoning obviously does not apply to those of us in the private sector. Likewise, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D., Haw.), a sponsor of a similar Senate bill, recently told the Times that current and future federal retirees "should not face a situation in which they must rely on Medicare."

It figures. Lawmakers finally decide to look at the unpleasant effects of the Medicare legislation they passed — then they pass a separate law to exempt themselves and federal workers. When you are enrolled in a superior program like the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the last thing you want is to be stuck with an inferior Medicare product.

Labor unions know the new Medicare prescription-drug bills are a bad deal for retirees with good private drug coverage. Now, Congress is desperate to avoid having the government dump federal and congressional retirees into the Medicare drug program. That's the canary in the coalmine for all seniors about to encounter the "unintended consequences" of the politically irresistible Medicare drug bills.

Curiously, the Senate Medicare drug bill actually had an amendment added to it by a vote of 93-3 that would have cut the drug benefit for members of Congress down to the level provided to seniors on Medicare. Fear not for your elected officials, however. Roll Call newspaper reported the very next day that members voted for the amendment "with the understanding that it would not show up in the final version of the legislation."

It's still not too late for Congress to help needy Medicare recipients and fix the badly broken Medicare program in a way that would not cost so many so much.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush called for Medicare to be reformed along the lines of the system Congress is now scrambling desperately to preserve for itself: the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Under the FEHBP, federal enrollees can choose from among a dozen to two dozen competing health plans every year, all of which have drug coverage integrated into their health plans. Federal workers and retirees are free to switch plans each year if their chosen plan doesn't fit their needs.

Serious reforms based upon this popular program would provide seniors with real options and a prescription-drug benefit suited to their personal needs. Members of Congress should go back to the drawing board and draft real Medicare reform, not just add a costly but inferior Medicare drug benefit that they don't even want for themselves when they retire.

— Robert Moffit is director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, where Derek Hunter is a researcher.

[tralfaz7]

What's good for the goose is good for the goose, and the damn gander will just have to take what it is given!

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[PhiKapMom]

Why should Congress and Federal employees/retirees have to have the Government pay for prescription drug care when we have perfectly good Federal Employees Health Benefit Plans? Bad enough they put us all in Medicare Part A (vast majority of Federal Employees keep their FEHB when they hit 65 and don't use Medicare but have to pay every two weeks into Medicare) when federal employees have a perfectly good plan. At least that is what the NARFE Magazine says.

Pay over $200 a month for FEHB family plan of Blue Cross/Blue Shield that includes a modified prescription benefit program -- get a discount on prescriptions. Why would you want to put all of those people in prescription drug benefit programs when they don't need it?

I consider this article biased against Congress and Federal Employees without looking into details. Flame away but there are some really loyal Federal Employees and Members of Congress that get lumped in with the bad ones!

[BJungNan]

Just like in Russia under communist rule, there will be stores and benefits for the ruling elite while the general population waits in longs lines or goes without.

More and more I feel this country is lost.

[bvw]

Shall we ban this article and the poster, too?

[The Great RJ]

This reeks. Why isn't this hypocracy being denounced by the New York Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN etc. </satire>

[PhiKapMom]

Why would we ban them for putting this article up. I just disagreed with it and said why?

What a ludicrous statement! TLB put you up to that?

[BJungNan]

I consider this article biased against Congress and Federal Employees without looking into details. Flame away but there are some really loyal Federal Employees and Members of Congress that get lumped in with the bad ones!

Were not talking about good federal employees getting lumped in with the bad ones. We're talking about federal employees getting lumped in with the rest of us. Don't be trying to change the subject now.

[gunnedah]

When will older Americans awaken and for that matter all of America. Both sides of the isle in Congress is together. They play a game with the rest of us while milking the cow dry.
If Congress can agree on their pay and perks to be sure they could agree on Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare.
They like wrestlers take turns at being the bad guy and use the "Smoking Mirrors" to screw all of us. They never have a problem agreeing on what that are going to get. When is the last time anyone has seen them jumping on one of their own members over some of their "Pork Barrel Spending"?Congress puts on this Charade every term and most American buy it.
After this they will argue over retirement benefits for Americas non government workers and like Social Security originally, it is a sort of pyramid scheme that depends upon our numbers growing. Bush has come up with this type plan but I bet the Democrats will be against it along with all the big corporations. The Corporations dont want it because it will cost them more money and the Democrats dont want it because unlike Social Security they wont be able to rob the trust fund and they dont want corporations to be in that position because they feel they are the only ones entitled to steal from Americas workers.
Wake up to that bunch of Crooks in Congress America!

[cc2k]

This might be a very slanted hit piece.

I haven't been keeping up with the conference committee activities, but if this is the original House Medicare Reform/Prescription Drug program then this piece tells less than half of the story (and is a deliberate mischaraterization/lie about the Medicare prescription program passed by the house).

The truth about the house plan is:

• It's entirely voluntary for everyone. It isn't automatic that anyone is enrolled in the Medicare prescription plan.
• The Federal Employees plan remains intact. If Federal employees want to drop the federal employee plan and enroll in the medicare plan, they can. They are not required to do this.
• Employers are encouraged to keep existing plans for their retirees. The current allowance of tax deductions for premiums paid by businesses for their retiree health care premiums will be changed to tax credits to partially pay for retiree health care premiums. Businesses that keep their existing plans will get tax breaks this way. Businesses that have no plan now might start one to get the tax breaks.

Obviously, it would be harder to encourage businesses to keep their existing private plans if the Federal government dropped its current benefit plan and rolled all the federal employees into the Medicare plan.

[Carry_Okie]

What's good for the goose is good for the goose, and the damn gander will just have to take what it is given!

They should choke on the 14th Amendment just like the rest of us.

[xrp]

"Let them eat cake"

attributed to Marie Antoinette

...and she was put to the guillotine

You'd think that Congress would start studying their history...

[nonliberal]

After passing this prescription drug bill, which I will be stuck paying for, Congress ranks just slightly above the Ebola Virus in popularity with me.