No, that's not a fair characterization.
Prescription drugs **will** cost us more money, at least in the short term (we should also see some benefits, as right now Medicare recipients are encouraged to wait until surgery is required, because surgery is covered by the old Meidcare, rather than take anything proactively such as medicine, becuase medicine wasn't covered).
That's your initial $450 Billion or whatever figure someone in Washington A.C./D.C. has swagged.
The Medicare privatization option, however, doesn't kick in for ten years. But getting the federal government in competition with private industry to manage Medicare is HUGE! That's how you get cuts in that massive bureaucracy (not an easy feet with a divided nation and Congress, either). In the mean time, Medicare is going to cost us some bucks. Nonetheless, its administration is going to be privatized, something that the Left is currently bashing Ted Kennedy for over on DU.