President's political dream scheme is becoming a nightmare (Medicare)

Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Opinion




The Medicare fiasco President's political dream scheme is becoming a nightmare



To the White House, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The idea was that President Bush would deliver on a political promise that both Republicans and Democrats had made for years: prescription drug coverage for Medicare recipients.


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Now, less than four months later, the president's political dream scheme is fast becoming a nightmare. Consider:



The constituency that the drug benefit aims to please -- the politically powerful senior citizenry -- is opposing the program en masse. Angered by a law that, among its many faults, forbids Medicare from negotiating bulk purchases that could hold down costs, seniors have turned against one of the program's strongest proponents: the AARP. Since the bill passed, 60,000 members have quit the seniors organization in protest. (See David Broder's column on today's Op-Ed page.)




In February, the Bush administration raised its 10-year cost estimate for the program from $400 billion to $534 billion. The 33 percent increase is significant not only for its size but because administration officials had assured reluctant conservatives in Congress before they voted that $400 billion was the absolute ceiling for costs. Then last week, Medicare's longtime chief actuary, Richard S. Foster, told The New York Times that former Medicare administrator Thomas Scully had threatened to fire Foster last year if he conveyed his estimate of the program's cost -- $551.5 billion -- to Congress. Democrats contend that such a threat violates federal law, and members of Congress from both parties are demanding explanations from administration officials.



Congressional investigators are scrutinizing fake video news reports, complete with fake reporters, that the Bush administration produced to promote the Medicare prescription bill. The videos, called video news releases in the broadcasting industry, were sent to local television stations across the country for use in newscasts. No disclaimer indicates that the videos were produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.


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