Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Sees More Medicare Givebacks, Prescription Drug Legislation This Year

Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, said yesterday that she expects Congress to pass another Medicare "giveback" bill this year and also "hopes to have legislation on the floor to reform Medicare and add a prescription drug benefit" by August, CongressDaily reports. Congress last year restored $35 billion over five years to providers and insurers for cutbacks that resulted from the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. Johnson said that while this year's giveback legislation would not "be as extensive as last year...there are a few essentials that have to be done," including delaying or canceling a scheduled 15% cut in funding for home health agencies. On the prescription drug front, Johnson said that any benefit should be "universal, voluntary, integrated into Medicare and affordable to both seniors and taxpayers." Finally, she said that Medicare reform needs to be undertaken with a shifting emphasis towards preventive care and management of chronic conditions. "Medicare law is about treating illness. That's not what medicine's about today," she said. Still, Johnson acknowledged that members of the subcommittee are "a long way from settling" on a reform bill (Rovner, CongressDaily, 3/16).