Lawmakers in House, Senate Introduce Bush Administration’s Medicare ‘Trigger’ Bill

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress introduced President Bush's Medicare savings bill on Monday, CongressDaily reports. The bill was required after Medicare trustees issued a funding warning that "triggers" legislation to curb spending for the program, which is mandated by the 2003 Medicare law (Johnson, CongressDaily, 2/26).

The legislation was introduced in the House by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). In the Senate, the bill was introduced by Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) (Armstrong, CQ Today, 2/25). Hoyer and Baucus said that they were introducing the bill because they are required to by the Medicare law and not because they endorse its contents.

However, Republicans touted the measure. Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said that for "too long, the only so-called solutions offered for dealing with Medicare's economic woes have been to simply ignore the problem," adding, "The proposed reforms introduced today mark a break from that sad trend" (CongressDaily, 2/26).

The measure now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee shares jurisdiction on the bill with the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ways and Means Committee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) said the House Democratic leadership would decide what goes into the final version of the bill. CQ Today reports that "lawmakers will have the opportunity to amend" the measure, "perhaps entirely gutting the president's original proposals" and adding provisions "culled from the wide range of health legislation that the president has threatened to veto," including cutting payments to Medicare Advantage plans.

The Medicare law forces House committees to discharge the bill by June 30, with a vote taking place not long afterward.

In the Senate, the Finance Committee has jurisdiction over the bill. Baucus did not disclose what he has planned for the measure but said that "it'll be different when it comes out of the committee" (CQ Today, 2/25). Baucus also said that instead of focusing on the president's measure, he will pursue his own Medicare bill this year. He said, "That bill will increase access to preventive benefits and primary care, and will improve the quality of care delivered under the program" (CongressDaily, 2/26).

PBS' "Nightly Business Report" on Monday included a commentary by Nada Eissa, associate professor of public policy and economics at Georgetown University, about the Medicare trigger. According to Eissa, eliminating the trigger "would be a big mistake." She adds, "The way we finance Medicare now is equivalent to taking out a credit card for our grandchildren and slapping our own medical bills on it" (Eissa, "Nightly Business Report," PBS, 2/25). A transcript of the segment is available online.