Maine, NH Lawmakers Split on Medicare Bill
WASHINGTON – As congressional negotiators put the final touches on a bill to revamp Medicare, New Hampshire and Maine lawmakers are split over whether to support the 10-year, $400 billion measure.
The bill would overhaul the senior citizens’ health care program with prescription drug benefits, a pilot program that would allow private insurance companies to compete with Medicare and a $25 billion spending increase for rural hospitals and physicians. Congress is expected to vote on the bill this weekend.
Because of last-minute negotiations on the bill’s language, members of Congress remained in the dark on its final contents until Thursday afternoon. Both Sens. John Sununu and Judd Gregg, both New Hampshire Republicans, said they had “significant concerns” about the bill and would have to read through the final version before deciding whether to support it. Both senators voted against an earlier version of the Medicare bill in June.
“This bill has some very serious flaws, in my opinion,” Gregg told reporters. “And I’ve got deep reservations about itá. “I’m going to take a very serious look at it.”
Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) said in an interview he would probably support the bill. While he did not favor all aspects of the legislation, he said, it was better than nothing.
“No bill is ever perfect, and nobody who supports the bill is going to believe that it is a perfect product,” Bass said. “But it’s a product that will provide a prescription drug benefit for seniors. And it’s way overdue.”
Both Bass and Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) have said that in future sessions of Congress, they would like to revisit some parts of the legislation they disagree with, including a provision that would allow Americans to import some medication from Canada.
Bradley and Bass voted in favor of the House version of the Medicare bill in June. Negotiators have been working since then to reconcile differing provisions of the House and Senate bills.
Neither of Maine’s senators, Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, have said whether they will vote for the bill. Both voted for the initial Senate version, but several provisions have changed since then. Collins said Congress needed to modernize Medicare, particularly by adding a prescription drug benefit for the first time.
Snowe, on the other hand, has joined a bipartisan group of senators who are circulating a letter to their colleagues in an attempt to remove a provision, called “premium support,” that would allow private insurance to compete with traditional Medicare for seniors’ business.
“This letter is an important message that we cannot accept an untested premium support program – one that could potentially impact the quality of health care for millions of seniors and effectively undercuts the traditional Medicare program,” Snowe said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the AARP, the nation’s largest organization of seniors, endorsed the Medicare bill, saying it would strengthen health security for millions of older Americans.
“We need to see bipartisan support,” said Steve Hahn, a spokesman for AARP. “We need to see legislation passed and enacted this year. AARP members have waited long enough.”
Nevertheless, some angry AARP members gathered in front of the organization’s Washington headquarters in the pouring rain Wednesday to protest the endorsement of the Medicare bill.
“This card is worthless,” shouted Genevieve Cervera, 64, of New York City, who crumpled her AARP membership card before television cameras. “Now you see it, now you don’t. That’s what [the AARP] did to us.”
“We got sold out,” she added. “We weren’t even informed.”
Cervera was among approximately 50 AARP members who traveled to the capital from New York with the progressive activist organization USAction.
Mike Naylor, AARP’s director of advocacy, said people do not understand the contents of the bill, and, if it becomes law, the AARP intends to spend “a lot of money” to educate people about it.
