Senate Finance Committee ‘Unlikely’ to Draft Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Before September

Members of the Senate Finance Committee have "all but resigned themselves" to waiting until after the August recess to craft a Medicare prescription drug benefit, CongressDaily/AM reports. Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had originally wanted to draft a bill by the end of July, but he said that the chances of this happening before September are "unlikely." CongressDaily/AM reports that Senate Democrats are trying to find a way to decrease the estimated $53 monthly premium in their bill to $30 without raising the amount of seniors' co-pays or federal funding for the bill. Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), who, along with Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), has introduced his own prescription drug bill, said that lawmakers also need to develop a delivery system for the drugs. Drug companies and pharmaceutical benefits managers, expected to be "key" players in the delivery system, are expected to meet with committee members over the next few days (Fulton/Rovner, CongressDaily/AM, 7/25).