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Clinton: Dump drug plan

BY GLENN THRUSH | NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU

February 3, 2006

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told Medicare czar Mark McClellan yesterday that the Bush administration's trouble-plagued prescription plan should be scrapped - a suggestion one GOP senator instantly assailed as "below the dignity" of the Senate.

A dozen years after her own efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system failed, Clinton has targeted the Bush administration's Medicare D prescription plan, citing horror stories from New York patients who have been denied medicine or subjected to delays.

"I, for one, believe we should scrap this and start over," said Clinton, during a finger-wagging, desk-thwacking speech before the Senate health committee.

McClellan didn't respond to Clinton's comments directly, but Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) labeled Clinton's call to repeal Medicare D drug plan "below the dignity of this committee" and said it was irresponsible to kill the program without having a ready replacement.

Clinton, who is planning a fundraiser for Santorum's likely Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, brushed off the criticism, telling Newsday, "I think the Congress should worry less about its dignity and more about the health care of the people."

The former first lady also suggested that her ill-fated 1993 health reform effort kept drug prices from skyrocketing in the 1990s by convincing pharmaceutical companies they were being watched by the White House.

"We weren't successful getting the legislation passed, but we were successful sending a message that people better get their prices down," she said.

Since the Bush Medicare plan was implemented Jan. 1, some patients who had been automatically receiving medication under government or private plans say they've been denied medicine for no reason, forced into coverage schemes that don't cover their drugs or subjected to long waits when they try to get information from government-subsidized help lines.

As a result, many states, including New York, have spent millions reimbursing pharmacists who pay for patients' drugs out of their own pockets, pending approvals.

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told state officials they would be reimbursed for such expenses. Yesterday, McClellan told the committee he's extending for 60 more days a temporary coverage program for patients who are still having trouble getting drugs.

"A change this big in a short period of time is bound to have some problems," McClellan said.