This is a letter from Families USA's Ron Pollack to Sen. Bob Graham, the chief Democratic sponsor of the Medicare Reform Act of 2001 (S. 1135) which, as a key element, creates a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
June 28, 2001
Senator Bob Graham
524 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Graham:
The introduction of your new bill, "Medicare Reform Act of 2001," (S. 1135) is an important step towards improving Medicare and creating a meaningful prescription drug benefit for older Americans and people with disabilities who depend on Medicare. We greatly appreciate the leadership you are providing on this critical issue.
Your bill addresses many of the issues that we consider to be important in establishing an effective drug benefit and protecting Medicare. First, we value your call for a benefit that is available to all beneficiaries; this is in keeping with the Medicare program's tradition of providing important social insurance. Second, we strongly support your approach of making the drug benefit an integral part of Medicare, as opposed to creating a new private insurance product.
Third, we especially appreciate your recognition of the special problems of lower-income beneficiaries. Clearly, this segment of the population needs extra, targeted protection so that they can meaningfully participate in the program and thus have access to necessary medicines. Fourth, we support the proposals developed to make traditional Medicare more cost-effective and beneficial to seniors and people with disabilities.
We understand the financial constraints under which you and your colleagues were operating as you designed this bill. As you undoubtedly agree, it is a regrettable that the excessive tax cuts enacted recently do not provide enough funds to expand Medicare prescription drug coverage in ways that are more comparable to drug coverage for younger populations.
We appreciate your efforts to help Medicare beneficiaries get the prescription drugs they need. We look forward to working with you and your cosponsors to enact the best possible Medicare drug benefit.
Sincerely yours,
Ronald F. Pollack,
Executive Director
