AP/Detroit News Examines Health Positions of Michigan U.S. Senate Candidates

The AP/Detroit News last week examined the health policy positions of Michigan Senate candidates Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and state Rep. Andrew Raczkowski (R). While the two men "differ on the details," both support creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit, state prescription drug purchasing pools and drug reimportation from Canada. Both candidates said a Medicare drug benefit should be provided by the government, as Senate Democrats have proposed, instead of by private companies, as proposed in a bill passed by the House. "A lot of (private insurance) plans that seniors bought into are now closing people off. I don't want that to happen to prescription drugs," Raczkowski said, adding that the 10-year, $390 billion Senate plan makes seniors pay too much money and is too expensive. While both candidates support reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada, where they are often less expensive, Levin said a bill allowing such practices that was passed by the Senate earlier this year was unnecessary because reimportation should be permitted under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Levin and Raczkowski also support many of the same provisions in patients' rights legislation, including proposals that would allow doctors, as opposed to insurance companies, to have the final say in medical decisions and would require insurance companies to pay for emergency and specialty care. In June 2001, Levin voted in favor of a Senate patients' rights bill that allows patients to sue for unlimited pain and suffering damages; while Raczkowski does not support unlimited damages, he said he does not support Republican efforts to limit damages in all cases (Durbin, AP/Detroit News, 8/29).