Senate Passes $10 Billion in Health Cuts

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WEBMD reports that the U.S. Senate passed a sweeping budget bill Thursday approving more than $10 billion in cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs over the next five years.The bulk of savings in the bill comes from cuts to Medicare subsidies to insurance companies and an increase in Medicaid prescription-drug rebates that drug manufacturers must pay to states.

The bill also includes $1.9 billion worth of emergency Medicaid benefits for victims of Hurricane Katrina living in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Political groups have long worried about potential cuts to health benefits as Congress moves to shave tens of billions of dollars from federal spending.
Negotiating Drug Prices

Senators rejected an amendment giving the federal government authority to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers. The drugmakers are getting ready to sell billions of dollars worth of medications through the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.

Following the vote, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) vowed to keep pushing the Medicare bargaining issue "again and again and again."

Current Medicare law bars the government from bargaining for lower prices with drugmakers, a fact that many lawmakers see as a financial giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry because it keeps drug prices higher.

"Let's give this power to the secretary [of health and human services] to save money for the program and save money for seniors," said Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

The amendment gained a 51-vote majority Thursday but failed to pass because procedural rules required 60 votes for approval.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson called for negotiating authority when he stepped down from his cabinet post in December of last year. Thompson led White House efforts to pass the Medicare drug benefit over the objections of many Democrats but surprised his colleagues when he told reporters that the bargaining ban was one of the biggest regrets of his tenure in President Bush's cabinet.

"I would like to have had the opportunity to negotiate," he said.

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