CQ’s Carey Discusses Bush’s FY 2009 Budget, Private Fee-for-Service Plans, House Panel Investigation of Ketek

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses President Bush's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal, Senate Finance Committee hearings about Medicare Advantage private fee-for-service plans and subpoenas issued by members of a House panel as part an investigation into the approval of Ketek in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

According to Carey, Bush's FY 2009 budget is expected to reduce spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as cut discretionary spending on health programs, including those at CDC, and freeze NIH funding. Medicare funding is expected to decline by $178 billion under the budget proposal, and Medicaid cuts could total $17 billion over the next five years, Carey says, adding that discretionary spending on health programs is expected to be cut by more than $2 billion. Some lawmakers said the proposed cuts would not garner much support in Congress, and groups representing health care providers also have opposed portions of the president's budget plan, Carey says. The Bush administration has said that Medicare is growing at a rate higher than inflation, even with the reductions, and that the budget plan would slow Medicare's rate of growth from 7.2% to 5%, according to Carey.

Carey also discusses Senate Finance Committee hearings about whether the growth of MA private fee-for-service plans needs to be checked and whether the law could be better designed to ensure that the plans serve beneficiaries' needs. Carey says witnesses at the hearings have discussed concerns about how private fee-for-service plans are not subject to the same federal regulations as other MA plans, as well as the plans' marketing activities, which witnesses said intentionally confuse beneficiaries into thinking they are still in traditional fee-for-service plans. She adds that lawmakers this year might attempt to cut MA plans, with a "particular focus" on private fee-for-service plans.

Lastly, Carey says the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee voted unanimously to subpoena HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and FDA officials as part of an investigation into the approval of the antibiotic Ketek. A Feb. 12 hearing is set to "examine the matters surrounding fraudulent clinical data" submitted to FDA as part of its approval of Ketek, Carey says (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 2/4).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.