Bush Lies On Medicare

When President Bush spoke in exultant terms about the new Medicare prescription drug package in Las Vegas a few days ago, he was gambling that seniors will not really learn about the small print for several years.

Bush has been insisting that seniors should get the same choices that members of Congress and other federal employees get. But the astonishingly complex Medicare plan voted on by Congress a few days ago is far more limited than what the legislators and bureaucrats have. And a provision that would have given the lawmakers and federal workers the same drug coverage as Medicare seniors was struck from the bill because their existing coverage is far more generous than what seniors will get.

A lawmaker with $3,500 worth of drug bills a year, just about the average cost of drugs for the average senior in America, would pay $875 in costs. In 2006 the average senior meeting the assets test (no more than $20,000 in savings per couple) with $3,500 in drug bills would pay a total of $2,420 -- $420 in estimated premiums, a $250 deductible, 20 percent of the next $2,000 and all costs after $2,250. The government wouldn't pay 95 percent of drug bills until after a senior had paid $3,600 in out-of-pocket drug costs.

The drug discount card that seniors will get next spring is ingenious, because many seniors will see some benefit before next year's election. The idea is to provide seniors with discounts from 10 percent to 25 percent for many of the drugs they buy at pharmacies. And the poorest seniors will get a $600 subsidy. The discount cards will phase out in 2006.