CQ's Carey Discusses President Bush's FY 2008 Budget, Mental Health Parity, Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Pricing

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Mental Health;  Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP;  Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 14 Feb 2007 - 23:00 PST

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Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, examines changes in Medicare and Medicaid payments in President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget proposal, legislation for mental health parity and Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-Calif.) hearings on prescription drug pricing oversight in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ." According to Carey, Bush's FY 2008 budget proposal will reduce "market basket" increases in payments to hospitals, health care providers and nursing homes to cut Medicaid and Medicare spending growth by $101.5 billion over the next five years. According to Carey, the budget also includes a provision that would raise premiums for higher-income Medicare Part B and Part D beneficiaries. Carey says lawmakers from both parties "have expressed support for greater SCHIP funding, so that amount is likely to be higher" than the $5 billion proposed by Bush. According to Carey, a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, as well as HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt's appearances at House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committee hearings "demonstrates the amount of opposition the president's budget will face this year" in Congress. Carey also discusses how proponents of mental health parity legislation believe the Democrat-controlled Congress likely will pass a bill that provides more equitable coverage of mental and physical illnesses. Carey says employers and insurers oppose the measure because they say it will drive up costs. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is expected to consider the bill this month. Finally, Carey discusses Waxman's investigation of Medicare prescription drug plans to see if they are misusing tax dollars and overcharging beneficiaries. Waxman has said he will send letters to drug plans to determine how profitable they are and whether they are passing negotiated savings on to beneficiaries. Waxman also said he will push for more fraud cases against the pharmaceutical industry (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 2/12).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.