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Guest Commentary: July 20, 2001
Bush Medicare Discount Card Proposal Is Nothing New
The Honorable Pete Stark
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The Medicare principles released by the White House raise more questions than they answer. We've heard similar rhetoric from the President since the campaign. Where is his plan? The only real proposal announced today is his drug discount plan, which is already widely available to seniors.
The President's announcement that he will make available new prescription drug discount cards for all Medicare beneficiaries is a little like a member of Congress taking credit for the sun rising.
With or without any action by the President, drug discount cards like he described are available to seniors today. They are available through the AARP, through Merck-Medco (a major pharmaceutical benefit manager), through Reader's Digest, and other outlets. In addition, some states have enacted similar discount plans, like my home state of California.
Under the President's proposal, the government is not going to do anything more than provide a conduit to Medicare beneficiaries for private prescription drug discount companies to market their products. And, from the brief description we've seen, he isn't even going to have the government assure that the marketing tools are fair – he's leaving that to a private consortium of these companies! Furthermore, once a senior joins one of these plans, the company is free to market other products to them as well.
The sad reality is that the discount plans today fail to offer a significant savings to most seniors. From information my staff pulled off the web, the prices in these so-called discount programs are roughly equivalent – sometimes better and sometimes worse – to the prices anyone can get by going to Drugstore.com, one of several major web-based pharmacy companies.
The President is attempting to divert American seniors' attention away from the real problem: the lack of prescription drug coverage in Medicare.
These cards are worth as much as a Safeway discount card, a CVS Savings Card, a Starbucks coffee card, or an Olsson's Book Card, to name a few. If you've got the money to spend, and you spend enough of it, you get some small percentage of savings. It's not a bad thing, but it is nothing to stand up and brag about. If America's seniors want to be members of such programs, there are plenty to choose from today.
The President's announcement really provides no new option for seniors –- just a new marketing tool for these private companies.
Note: This column has been adapted from a statement Rep. Stark released, July 12, 2001.
 How to contact Rep. Pete Stark (D-California)
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