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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1329)	1/20/1999 7:43:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

Clinton to Call for Medicare Drug Benefit (Update1) Bloomberg News January 19, 1999, 7:15 p.m. ET Clinton to Call for Medicare Drug Benefit (Update1) (adds analyst comments in paragraphs 8-10) Washington, Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Bill Clinton will call on Congress tonight to give senior citizens a prescription drug benefit as part of a larger effort to overhaul the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly, said White House health aide Chris Jennings. Clinton will call for the benefit tonight as part of his State of the Union address, in which he will also ask Congress to set aside 15 percent of U.S. budget surpluses over the next 15 years for Medicare, Jennings said. ''We are trying to set up a financing stream to extend the life of the trust fund and to provide for a long overdue prescription drug benefit and to modernize the (Medicare) program,'' he said. Without other reforms, shifting 15 percent of the budget surplus to Medicare would extend the life of the program's hospitalization trust fund to 2020, Jennings said. It is currently projected to run out of money in 2008. The Clinton proposal is the latest sign that rising prescription drug costs and the financial burden on senior citizens will be an issue in the 1999 session of the Republican- controlled Congress. A commission on the future of Medicare, the government health insurance program for nearly 40 million elderly and disabled Americans, is considering whether to propose a prescription drug benefit. The commission is scheduled to report to Congress in March on how it would it prepare Medicare to handle an influx of enrollees when Baby Boomers begin retiring after 2010. Kennedy Drafting Bill In addition, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, is drafting legislation that would pay for a Medicare prescription drug benefit by raising cigarette taxes. Industry analysts say passage of a drug benefit by the Republican-controlled Congress is a long shot, especially given the impeachment trial of Clinton taking place in the Senate. ''I would not be optimistic that anything important relating to the pharmaceutical industry put forth by President Clinton would have any chance of seeing the light of day,'' said Neil Sweig, drug industry analyst with Southeast Research Partners. Still, the proposal could focus unwanted attention on rising U.S. drug costs, which has grown more than 9 percent a year since 1996. ''The industry is likely to come under increased scrutiny (in Washington) for its pricing practices,'' Ira Loss, industry analyst with HSBC Washington Analysis, said in a December report. The pharmaceutical industry worries that Medicare drug benefit would lead to price controls on its products. --Paul Heldman in Washington (202) 624-1842, with reporting by