Nov 26, 2003 4 min read

Fayette County’s two congressmen voted differently on sweeping changes in Medicare. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the changes late last week and the U.S. Senate voted for the measure Tuesday, sending it to President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill.

Not surprisingly, U.S. Reps. John Murtha (D-Johnstown) and Bill Shuster (R-Holidaysburg) voted along party lines. The changes had been backed mainly by Republicans and opposed for the most part by Democrats.

“This prescription drug plan is the first step in destroying Medicare as we know it. In the long run, it doesn’t benefit seniors at all. It does just the opposite: It undercuts the basic value of Medicare, ‘ Murtha said.

“There’s no cost-containment at all. Pharmaceuticals on the stock market went up right away because the only people who’ll benefit from this plan are the drug companies. That’s who’s paying for many of the ads we’re seeing in support of this plan.

“This plan at best provides about $1 for drug coverage for every $4 that seniors pay for themselves. And if prescription drug expenditures continue to grow at their current rate of 17 percent a year, beneficiaries in most expenditure levels will actually face higher out-of-pocket costs in 2007, one year after the bill is implemented, than they do right now with no coverage.’

Murtha said the proposal to have means testing in Medicare will destroy insurance as we know it.

“The whole idea of insurance is that people in the same program get the same coverage – they don’t get more or less coverage based on their income or the value of their home and other assets,’ Murtha said.

“This push to privatization also means that many people will pay much more for their Medicare part B insurance (which covers doctor and outpatient care). The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that Part B premiums for some beneficiaries could rise as much as 88 percent, with drastic variations in premiums from one region of the country to the next.

“Another serious problem that will result from privatization is the rural areas and smaller urban communities will not be as lucrative for the insurance companies, so we’ll have less competition -perhaps no competition at all – in these areas. As a result, the costs will be a lot higher in the 12th District of Pennsylvania and similar areas of the country,’ Murtha said.

Shuster, however, said the bill modernizes Medicare and adds a prescription drug plan that will benefit more than 40 million senior citizens.

“Almost 40 years ago, a promise was made to seniors, a promise that they could depend on Medicare for affordable, reliable and quality health care” Shuster said. “The House of Representatives delivered on that promise by providing seniors access to a voluntary and affordable prescription drug benefit and adding much needed reforms to modernize the Medicare program. The reforms included in this bill will give the power of choice back to our seniors and take it out of the hands of Washington bureaucrats. Seniors have the ability to choose which plan best meets their specific health needs.”

Shuster said that states, such as Pennsylvania, that have their own state pharmaceutical assistance plan will receive the greatest benefit from the federal government program. The state will also receive significant fiscal relief when the government takes on the burden of being the primary prescription drug provider, Shuster said.

He added that the bill will also help local hospitals.

“Rural and small urban hospitals will benefit significantly from this legislation,” Shuster said. “Many hospitals in the ninth district, which have been underfunded for years, will now receive increased Medicare reimbursement payments in an unprecedented amount of $33 million over the next 10 years.”