Bush vows to resist drug benefit reform

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - After fending off legislation to let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices, President Bush made it clear Monday he would fight future attempts to alter the program for the elderly and disabled.

Bush praised the Medicare drug benefit for costing less than anticipated and for high satisfaction rates among customers.

"I just want to assure you that we'll do everything we can to jealously guard why this program is working," Bush told about a dozen Medicare participants and senior advocates at a White House meeting attended by the Associated Press. "That basically means making sure seniors are still in charge of the decisions."

The president met with beneficiaries and supporters of the program shortly before Medicare's trustees issued a report saying the program would run out of money in 2019, absent any changes.

"As we begin to think through solutions for Medicare, we ought to make sure that we remember the principles inherent in this Medicare reform that has worked so well for our seniors, and that principle is competition works," Bush said.

Bush met for about 30 minutes with seniors from Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina and New York. All shared their experiences with how the benefit, which began in January 2006, has saved them money.

Under the program, the federal government subsidizes the cost of medicine for beneficiaries who enroll in a private insurance plan.

The program cost about $30 billion in its first year, about 30 percent less than the $43 billion it had been expected to cost.

The savings are attributable to lower than anticipated enrollment, drug prices going up less than expected, and insurers getting bigger discounts from drug manufacturers than anticipated. The president repeatedly emphasized the latter reason Monday.

The Senate blocked legislation last week that would have let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices. Democrats couldn't muster the 60 supporters needed to bring the bill to a vote.

Julian "Arnie" Schuetz, and his wife Avice, residents of Mountain Home, Ark., told Bush he saved more than $1,000 on his medicine in 2006. The savings for him and his wife this year will exceed $1,600, he said.

"The only thing I can tell those people who want to mess with it, there's an old saying down in Arkansas: `If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Schuetz said.

Leaders of advocacy groups representing blacks, Hispanics and Asian-Americans told Bush the drug benefit has helped reduce disparities in health care.

"The reality was that 30 percent of African-American seniors did not have prescription drug coverage, so it was hard to imagine how they were going to manage their diabetes or cardiovascular disease without access to medications," said Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum.

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On the Net:

Official Medicare site: http://www.medicare.gov

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070424/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_medicare_drugs [link]