Congressmen Reserve Best
Drug Plan for Themselves

he prescription drug plan for seniors that awaits final legislative deliberation in Washington guarantees that federal employees and members of Congress will have better benefits than those available to the rest of the population.

In the Medicare prescription drug plan passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, the drug benefit for federal retirees cannot be reduced to the level proposed in the new legislation. In other words, the plan Congress is considering for taxpayers is one they do not want for themselves.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the drug benefits obtained through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program are worth about 50 percent more than the proposed Medicare drug benefits to be made available to everyone else.
Conrad F. Meyer, managing editor of Health Care News, reports that the bill exempting federal employees from the reduced benefits plan was introduced by Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, and Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-HI. Akaka said federal employees (including members of Congress, judges, etc.) "should not face a situation in which they must rely on Medicare."

About 8.5 million federal workers, retirees and relatives are covered by the federal employee health plan, Meyer said.
"Unless some major revisions are made to the House and Senate Medicare plans, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that one-third of retired, private-sector employees with employer-sponsored drug coverage could lose their benefit coverage as a result of Medicare reform. As it stands, Medicare reform will offer private and public employees a powerful incentive to reduce or drop drug benefits for their employees," said Meyer.

The current federal employee plan covers 80 percent of total drug costs, compared with about 49 percent in the Senate Medicare plan, and 55 percent under the House Medicare version, according to Kenneth E. Thorpe, chairman of the health policy department at Emory University.

There are other differences between the federal employee benefit program and the proposed Medicare plans. Federal employees do not have to pay an additional premium or deductible for drug coverage, but the under the Medicare plans in Congress, individuals would make annual payments of $420 and face deductibles of at least $250.

Current Medicare reform plans would require patients to pay all drug costs up to $4,500 or $5,800 a year in the Senate version, or from $2,000 to $4,900 in the House version.

The drug benefits would be administered by a new agency called the Center for Medicare Choice that divides the nation into 10 or more geographical regions similar to those advocated by the Clinton administration in its Health Security Act of 1994, produced by Hillary Clinton's health care task force.