By the end of the night, the majority on the committee approved a bill that funnels taxpayers' dollars to insurance companies with the hope that those companies will be enticed to provide medication insurance. The Medicare Rx 2000 Act went on to pass the House on June 28 by a 217-214 vote. Instead of providing a prescription medication benefit under Medicare, the Medicare Rx 2000 Act builds on the already-flawed private Medigap insurance market. This approach is a big problem. For starters, today, most Medicare beneficiaries cannot afford a Medigap plan.
Seniors end up paying far more in premiums than the value of the prescription medication coverage.
That's cost-prohibitive for many of the seniors in Florida's 5th Congressional District and many other communities across the country. The Medicare Rx 2000 Act would do nothing to head off some of these major problems - the price fluctuations, high premiums and high deductibles. The subsidies offered in the bill would go directly to private insurance companies, not to seniors, and there would be no guarantees that Medicare beneficiaries would be able to afford the private insurance prescription drug plans. Even the Congressional Budget Office estimates nearly 10 million people, or a quarter of all seniors, would remain uncovered under this measure. There would also be no guarantees that the drug-only plans would be offered at all.