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Medicare "Reform' Will Buy Many Votes, But Little Care.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(NATIONAL ISSUE)
Byline: ALAN REYNOLDS
The House and Senate passed a bill called "a $400 billion prescription drug bill for seniors."
Much is made of the fact that this bill was supported by AARP, an organization said to "represent 35 million seniors."
In reality, the bill will cost four or five times that much in the next decade alone. And AARP represents itself, not seniors.
The prescription drug plan is estimated to cost "only" $410 billion over just the first eight years, not 10, because the plan pays nothing until 2006.
The estimated yearly expense quickly triples from $25.7 billion in the first year to $73.1 billion by 2013.
The Congressional Budget Office also assumes the monthly premium will rise from $35 to $58 by 2013 and that the deductible will be increased from $250 to $445. Were it not for those increased premiums and deductibles, even the initial cost would far exceed $410 billion.
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