National Journal Examines Sen. Breaux’ Position on Medicare Drug Benefit
National Journal this week profiles Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and examines his decision to move from his "traditional position as a centrist leader" on health care issues and support a "decidedly conservative" Medicare prescription drug benefit bill. Breaux cosponsored a "tripartisan" bill with Sens. Charles Grassley (R- Iowa), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and James Jeffords (I-Vt.), which would have relied on private insurers to offer a Medicare drug benefit. Most Democrats, however, supported legislation sponsored by Sen. Bob Graham (R-Fla.) and Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.), which would have provided a prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare coverage. Neither bill received the 60 votes required for passage under Senate rules in test votes last week. According to National Journal, Breaux decided to support the tripartisan legislation rather than develop a "middle-of-the-road proposal" as a result of his commitment to "transforming Medicare" into a program similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, a proposal supported by many Republicans. In FEHBP, health plans compete to serve federal employees, which provides participants with a large selection of plans with different benefits and prices. Breaux also "argues fervently" against proposals that would add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare without broader reform of the program. "There's a philosophical problem here that Democrats generally do not want to change Medicare from being a government-run program. The government runs the program and sets the prices and sets the reimbursement rates, and it's all government-run. What we're advocating is that, when we're dealing with prescription drugs, we're going to try something different, and a lot of Democrats don't like that," Breaux said (Werber Serafini, National Journal, 7/27).
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