The pharmaceutical industry has become one of the most profitable in the nation. But how quickly that happens, and what form it takes, is unclear. It blasts you out of the water. The politics in one sense is quite simple. The issue is at the top of everybody's agenda.
Most lawmakers think a new drug benefit for seniors is inevitable.
But in another sense, the politics couldn't be tougher. As a result, the White House has offered a kind of stopgap prescription drug plan that satisfies hardly anyone on Capitol Hill. It is aimed at the poorest of the senior citizens. The White House, in essence, is telling Congress that if it wants to cover prescription drugs for all seniors, it needs to do it as part of a thorough, cost-saving makeover of the Medicare program. Without that makeover, a new drug benefit is unaffordable.