Medi-Minutes

Republican Drug Coverage Bill Approved by 3-Vote Margin

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to subsidize private insurance companies to encourage them to offer drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. The measure, which Democrats criticized as a "sham," was approved on a narrow 217-214 vote.

House Democrats dragged out the debate, beginning with a protest walkout down the Capitol steps. They called the Republican bill an election-year fraud that not even Republican leaders intend to become law. "It’s a hoax, it’s public relations, it’s a fig leaf," said House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt.

But Republicans defended the measure, saying it would create a new federal agency to negotiate with private insurers to offer at least two plans from which beneficiaries could choose. The cost would be $40 billion over five years. House Democrats proposed instead that drug coverage be included as a benefit directly through Medicare at a cost of $100 billion over five years. AARP declined to endorse either proposal.