Pay more, get less.(Between The Lines)

ITEM: The Minneapolis Star Tribune bemoaned infighting over competing Medicare reforms. "As Congress labors to complete a $400 billion overhaul of Medicare this fall," said the paper on Oct. 13, "lawmakers say they are trying to help senior citizens with the crushing cost of. prescription drugs. But of course there's another constituency. A good deal of the money ultimately will flow to drug manufacturers and insurance companies that enter tire Medicare market, and it appears that they are influencing the legislation in a way that is not in the best interest of elderly Americans or the taxpayers who help fund Medicare."

The government should order lower costs, said the Star Tribune, contending that the "Medicare program has used volume discounts with doctors and hospitals very effectively to control costs ... and there is no reason it shouldn't do the same with drug prices."

BETWEEN THE LINES: Prescribing a new government entitlement is exactly the wrong way to hold down costs. The Star Tribune also ignores how the current Medicare system has grown sevenfold over original projections. It's on its way to becoming the second largest federal entitlement program. And government estimates of a prescription drug entitlement are no doubt low.

Some private-sector economists peg the price tag of a new drug benefit as high as $4 trillion over a decade. There would be other costs with a drug entitlement, which seems to be reaching the final stages of negotiations on Capitol Hill. Studies of both Senate- and House-passed bills demonstrate that about a third of seniors would lose their current coverage, as they get dumped from employer-based plans. Conservative critics as well as a study by Emory ...