Medicare Advantage subsidies will be cut, while Medicare will gain the ability to negotiate drug prices, albeit on a limited basis. Those are my predictions for legislation that will be passed early in January by Congress. The trick will be to get the Senate and Bush to go along.
But that may actually happen.
Nancy Pelosi is one of the sharpest politicians in the land, and she will work hard to get Congress to put together a health care bill that includes:
cuts of several points in Medicare Advantage subsidies (currently “overpaid” by 11%) along with
enhancements to the Part D program that will help close the doughnut hole,
rescission of the cuts in Medicare physician reimbursement that will go into effect on January 1,
and some sort of language allowing CMS to negotiate drug prices with pharma, likely on a “pilot” basis.
I can already hear the snickering – “never happen, Bush will veto the bill”.
He may well veto the bill, although this would put his party, still reeling from the recent election, in the rather awkward position of supporting cuts in physician pay and lower benefits for seniors while continuing to overpay HMOs.
You know, those HMOs whose execs are making billions from illegal stock deals?
Now that’s not exactly politically wise.
