The KaiserNetwork.org posted the following excerpts from editorials around the country about the news that the Medicare drug benefit is now projected to cost far more than the Bush administration first estimated.
* Boston Globe: "This society ought to marshal the resources to keep Medicare a bedrock of affordable protection" for the elderly, a Globe editorial states, concluding that a tax increase "spread throughout the population would safeguard Medicare and spare millions from an old age of increasing hardship" (Boston Globe, 2/10).
* Chicago Tribune: The Medicare prescription drug benefit "was sold with false numbers, is badly designed and is far, far too expensive for the federal government to absorb," according to a Tribune editorial. The Tribune states that Congress "has to repeal this program" (Chicago Tribune, 2/10).
* Denver Post: The Bush administration's explanations for the "'lowball' projection" it gave for the cost of the new Medicare law "doesn't wash," a Denver Post editorial states. According to the editorial, "Congress should approve bulk purchasing" of prescription drugs for Medicare, and "lawmakers should ... remember the story of the Medicare cost estimates when they review Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security" (Denver Post, 2/10).
* New York Times: With regard to cost estimates for programs the Bush administration "wants to sell," the "math isn't just fuzzy ... it is often downright misleading and deliberately so," a New York Times editorial states, adding that the cost estimate for the Medicare prescription drug benefit is the "latest example." According to the editorial, "Americans have to choose" whether they want a "social safety net that ... makes sure [the elderly] can afford adequate health care" or a "small government with a tax code" that protects "the wealth of the richest Americans at the expense of the middle class and the working poor" (New York Times, 2/10).
* Philadelphia Daily News: A bipartisan bill in the Senate that would repeal part of the new Medicare law to allow the government to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies and "introduce other protections for seniors ... might salvage some of the current mess" with Medicare, a Daily News editorial states (Philadelphia Daily News, 2/10).
* Providence Journal: As Medicaid and Medicare costs "are rising much faster than inflation" and governors become concerned that more costs might be shifted to states, "making nonessential medicines available to the elderly" -- such as those for erectile dysfunction -- "should be off the table," a Journal editorial states (Providence Journal, 2/10).
* USA Today: Medicare's prescription drug benefit is "unaffordable" without "an infusion of new tax revenue," a USA Today editorial states. The editorial continues, "Congress ought to revisit the law before it kicks in ... and figure out a way to target benefits to those who need them the most." The editorial adds that the "greater need is to abandon piecemeal approaches to the nation's mounting health care crisis and face up to the politically unpalatable need for a comprehensive solution" (USA Today, 2/10).
* Washington Post: The "phony, or at the very least unwarranted, outrage over Medicare costs underscores a real outage: the continuing, repeated brazenness of the Bush administration and its congressional enablers in manipulating budget windows to their liking," a Washington Post editorial states. The editorial concludes that predicting the cost of government programs and "the trajectory of the deficit is always inexact," but developing the "most honest assessment possible is a necessary ingredient of responsible policy-making" (Washington Post, 2/10).
* Washington Times: "In light of [the] considerable and mounting sum" of Medicare's prescription drug benefit, "lawmakers will have to broadly review the potential for waste" under the law and "consider if new legislation is needed to rein it in, even if this means more narrowly defining the meaning of 'medically necessary,'" according to a Washington Times editorial (Washington Times, 2/10).