Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005--Resumed
DEFICIT REDUCTION OMNIBUS RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2005--RESUMED
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I rise in opposition to the Nelson amendment. I think everybody knows that the taxpayers pay 75 percent of the Part B premium and 25 percent is paid by the individual. Whenever we increase doctors' reimbursement--and we do that in this bill by 5.3 percent so that doctors do not lose their money--then, obviously, the 25 percent is going to go up a little bit, just as the 75 percent goes up a little bit when reimbursement is increased.
The Senator from Florida takes offense at the fact that the premium is going to go up in the year 2007 by $1.69. It is the way the formula works. I think every Senator wants to vote to give the doctors fair reimbursement because without doctors senior citizens cannot be served. So we ought to let the formula work.
The offset is very egregious toward managed care as well. Also, do not forget that low-income people, people on Medicaid, do not pay the Part B and those who are not on Medicaid but below the poverty level have help through the QI program that we passed and the President signed recently to continue that program. So I hope my colleagues will defeat the amendment.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, this is a bipartisan amendment, the Grassley-Dorgan amendment, with a lot of cosponsors. We have a problem in the existing bill that will hurt family farmers. It cuts farm payments across the board for 100 percent of the farmers. It cuts conservation programs, so it harms the environment to a greater extent. What we do is solve a problem and help every family farmer in the process.
Ten percent of the farmers in the United States get 72 percent of the benefit out of the farm program. That is unfair. The farm programs have always been targeted toward medium- and small-sized farmers. So we put in a hard cap of $250,000. Mr. President, $250,000 is all one farm entity can get from the farm program. We redistribute that money so we do not have that 2.5-percent cut. We restore some money for conservation and things of that nature.
So I hope you will support our amendment. The last time it was up, we got 66 votes for it.
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AMENDMENT NO. 2365
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, this amendment deals with the fact that under current law, 31 of our States are seeing significant cuts in Federal support for Medicaid because of a reduction in the percentage the Federal Government will pay, the FMAP, as we always refer to it, the Federal matching rate. Alaska is held harmless in the underlying bill. They will not suffer a cut. My amendment would say that for the other 30 States, the cut should not be more than five-tenths of 1 percent next year. The amendment is more than offset. In fact, the offset is supported strongly by Secretary Leavitt's Medicaid Commission. It is supported strongly by the National Governors Association. It would save the States over $3 billion if this offset is agreed to as part of this amendment.
I urge my colleagues to support the amendment. This map shows the States in red that would get a more fair share of Medicaid funds, if the amendment passes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask Members to vote no on this amendment. There is an odd situation here. We have had a formula in the legislation for 40 years. That formula regularly has some States getting more reimbursement, some States getting less. Next year your State might go up. The next year it might go down. That is the way it has been working. All of a sudden, some States are receiving a reduction, and they want to keep it where it is. I have never had a situation where, when the formula worked to the benefit of the State, their reimbursement went up, that you come in here and ask for us to reduce the reimbursement. No, you accept the formula. If you want to change the formula, Senator Baucus and I have a good plan to change the formula. It would smooth out the peaks and valleys. That is what we ought to be doing instead of piecemeal doing it this way. I ask Members to vote against the amendment.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, we do not need an amendment to improve this situation because this bill has in it already very significant incentives for generic utilization through the way we reimburse generics and the dispensing fee we require.
A very significant thing is to remember that brand drugs account for 67 percent of Medicaid prescriptions, but they also account for 81 percent of the Medicaid rebates. This is reasonable policy for us, then, to create parity between brand and generic rebates. This amendment would upset that parity.
The amendment before the Senate also simply strikes generic rebates; it does not pay for it. So I strongly oppose bringing the Committee on Finance out of compliance with our budget instructions. This amendment would do that. I ask Members to oppose the amendment.
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The Senator from Rhode Island [Mr. REED], for himself, Mr. Baucus, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Corzine, Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Obama, proposes an amendment numbered 2409.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To strike provisions relating to reforms of targeted case management)
Strike section 6031 of the bill.
Mr. REED. This amendment strikes section 6031 of the reconciliation act which pertains to case management services. States have the ability to identify groups such as children and adults with AIDS, children in foster care, other vulnerable groups, and find comprehensive services. These services include educational and social as well as medical services. The underlying reconciliation bill will force these services to be paid for by third parties, the State or others. That will decrease the use of these services and actually end up costing more to the States, and it will disrupt many of the very appropriate programs we have. In fact, many of these programs save money by dealing with these people.
I would point out that this legislation does not require an offset, nor does it require a supermajority vote since we are striking language in the underlying bill.
I reserve any time I have.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am shocked anybody from the other side of the aisle would raise any questions against the policy we have in our bill. This is not a Republican policy. This is not a Bush administration policy. This is a policy that was offered by the previous administration, the Clinton administration. The targeted case management provision of this bill merely codifies that policy that was offered by the Clinton administration. I have a letter I got from the U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association expressing thanks for the targeted case management provisions:
Your measured steps and considerations of TCM will preserve the needed services to those who cannot attain housing, employment, or health care on their own. [We] appreciate your work in helping to ensure that mentally disabled Americans have the opportunity to access Medicaid services.
It seems to me this is something that ought to be of the heart and the brain of anybody on the other side of the aisle.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the fact is that the Government does not negotiate prices, it sets prices. The second thing is that we set in place in the Medicare bill plans to negotiate prices, and we know now from experience, and I did not know it when this amendment was offered before, that these plans are negotiating prices that are much lower for beneficiaries and the taxpayers than we even anticipated when we passed the bill 2 years ago.
One thing that ought to be taken into consideration is the fact that there is no savings from this amendment. I would like to quote from The Washington Post, February 17: Governments are notoriously bad for setting prices, and the U.S. Government is notoriously bad at setting prices in the medical realm.
We need to defeat this amendment as we defeated it a few months ago.
Ms. SNOWE. I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Kerry and Senator Dodd as cosponsors.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the amendment is not germane to the measure before the Senate so I raise a point of order under section 305 of the Budget Act.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I thank the Senator for his concerns and want to clarify for him the intent of the bill regarding dispensing fees and respond to some of his concerns. I agree that States will need to review and increase the fees that they pay pharmacies for dispensing Medicaid prescriptions. We want to be sure that Medicaid recipients can continue to have access to prescription medications from their local pharmacies. Coming from a rural State, I know that many of my constituents rely on pharmacies for health care services and the pharmacist may be the only health care professional for many miles.
The overall assumptions made in the bill is that States will increase their dispensing fees to account for the fact that States would probably be paying pharmacists a lower amount for the drug product that more accurately reflects the cost of the drug product that is being dispensed. The amount of the dispensing fee increase will depend on many factors in each State.
We expect that each State will regularly undertake surveys of current pharmacy dispensing costs to determine their dispensing fees, and that such costs would include those that are listed in the bill. States would set their dispensing fees based on those surveys. We also expect that States will pay pharmacies a reasonable return for dispensing Medicaid prescriptions.
Our expectation is that States will do all they can to encourage the dispensing of generic drugs in Medicaid. It is my expectation that States will set significantly higher fees for generics than for brands, such as one and a half or twice the brand name fee. If an innovator multiple source drug is less than or equal to the cost of a generic, then the State should pay the generic dispensing fee for that drug.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Senator ROCKEFELLER, I share your concerns about the Section 1115 waivers recently negotiated by CMS and several States, including Florida and Vermont. I am also concerned about pending waivers being negotiated in South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia and West Virginia. Medicaid is a joint Federal-State partnership in all respects, including its financing, and both Congress and beneficiaries should be aware of the extent to which CMS is negotiating waivers with States that modify the Federal-State financing relationship or the Federal guarantee of health benefits. CMS has taken several steps to improve the waiver information available on its website since early 2002. However, as you pointed out at the Finance Committee hearing last week, CMS does not post notification on their website when they have received formal or informal communication from a State regarding a waiver and the ``State Waiver Programs and Demonstrations'' portion of the website is not updated by CMS on a regular basis.
Mr. BAUCUS. Senator GRASSLEY, I think it is more than just a question of transparency. It is also a question of legality. In many cases, the content of the waivers that CMS is negotiating fundamentally alters the Federal guarantee of Medicaid benefits. This is not the intended purpose of Medicaid demonstration authority. Section 1115 waiver authority allows the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to waive certain provisions of the Medicaid program if the changes are determined to ``promote the objectives'' of Medicaid. I am concerned that the current waivers being approved by CMS go well beyond CMS' authority and that Congress should be more vigilant in its oversight.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Senator BAUCUS, I certainly appreciate your views on this issue. You and I have worked hard over the last couple of years to improve Medicaid waiver transparency, and I think we have made some progress. But, I understand your desire to do more. I want to continue working with you to ensure that the Senate Finance Committee fulfills its oversight obligation in this area. I also think that the Medicaid waiver amendment that Senator ROCKEFELLER is offering has merit, and I would like to continue working with him to improve the waiver information available on CMS' website.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. I do recognize the valuable role drug distributors play in the delivery of prescription medication and our Nation's health care and did intend to exclude prompt pay discounts from the methodology.
I say to my colleague from Ohio that I will work with him to ensure that my intention to exclude the discounts is preserved through the conference and enacted into law.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the Senate will vote shortly on final passage of S. 1932. We have had a good debate on this bill. I commend the chairman of the Budget Committee for his effective and fair management of the consideration of this bill this week.
The Senate Finance Committee title was carefully crafted to address a wide range of member priorities. The Senate Finance Committee title is a compromise--one that was meticulously negotiated over many months. It represents clear-headed, commonsense reforms.
But here is something that should make a lot of people wonder what is going on around here. I noted with interest a recent Washington Post article which notes:
The Senate package is gaining kudos from some unlikely sources. Liberal budget and antipoverty groups say the Senate budget-cutting legislation largely avoids cuts that will hit low-income beneficiaries .....
And here is another one. The Associated Press reports:
As a result, the Senate's Medicare and Medicaid cuts largely won't touch beneficiaries of the programs, instead tapping drug companies, pharmacies and insurance subsidies for much of the savings.
I am therefore somewhat confused why more of my friends and colleagues from the Democratic side are not going to support final passage of this bill. I think I know partly what the answer is--is it because the House version of this bill is much more far-reaching than the Senate proposal? Is it because the same groups that praise the Senate bill oppose the process moving forward on that basis?
I would make the point that I think the Senate's position in going to conference with the House would be strengthened if S. 1932 passed with strong bipartisan support. I do not understand why the liberal budget groups are not urging Democrats to unite in support of the Senate bill.
I believe that the American people want us to join together to get things done. They want us to get our fiscal house in order, but they also want us to enact compassionate policies that help honest-to-goodness working families. The Senate bill meets both of those priorities. Here is the bottom line, and I want all my friends on the other side of the aisle to hear this. Here is what a vote against the Senate bill we have before us today means. Opposition to the Senate bill's balanced approach to Medicaid reform and program improvements is opposition to achieving savings, preserving services, and protecting beneficiaries.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against cutting wasteful spending in Medicaid and other changes that provide additional resources to State Medicaid programs.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against having the State and Federal Government pay less for drugs.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against tightening up asset transfers, thereby paying less for nursing home care through Medicaid.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against increasing State and Federal payments from drug companies.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against a $2 billion windfall to the States.
Opposition to the Senate bill's balanced approach to Medicaid reform and program improvements is opposition to the bipartisan Family Opportunity Act.
So that means that a ``no'' vote is a vote against the Family Opportunity Act's expansion of Medicaid eligibility for severely disabled children. Opposition to this provision means forcing many working families to refuse better jobs or promotions--keeping them poor in order to qualify for Medicaid or, worse, relinquish custody of their disabled child to the State so that their child can continue to get the services they need.
A ``no'' vote is also a vote against the Family Opportunity Act's protection for families whose newborn is diagnosed with a severe disability from being liable for thousands of dollars of medical costs.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against ``Money Follows the Person,'' which provides grants to States to increase the use of home and community based services, rather than institutional services. ``Money Follows the Person'' also eliminates barriers so that individuals can receive support for long-term services in the settings of their choice.
Opposition to the Senate bill's balanced approach to Medicaid reform and program improvements is opposition to a down payment on Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.
So that means that a ``no'' vote is a vote against providing $1.8 billion to protect Medicaid benefits in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi for people affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Opposition to the Senate bill's balanced approach to Medicaid reform and program improvements is opposition to protecting health coverage for thousands of children and improving the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against preventing funding shortfalls in the Children's Health Insurance Program in 23 States.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against providing new options for private coverage of long-term care through Long-term Care Partnerships.
A ``no'' vote also means opposition to closing loopholes that permit the unscrupulous ``gaming'' of Medicaid eligibility rules to intentionally shelter assets to qualify for taxpayer-financed long-term care coverage in Medicaid.
Those who vote against this bill are also opposing the Senate bill's balanced approach to Medicaid reform and program improvements is opposition to protecting access for rural beneficiaries.
So that means that a ``no'' vote is a vote against protecting small rural hospitals and sole community hospitals by extending the hold-harmless provisions that protect them from losses resulting from implementation of the hospital outpatient prospective payment system.
A ``no'' vote is also opposition to extending the Medicare Dependent Hospital Program, which provides financial protections to rural hospitals with less than 100 beds that have a greater than 60 percent share of Medicare patients.
A ``no'' vote also means opposition to expanding coverage of additional preventive benefits under Federal Qualified Health Centers.
Why would my Democratic colleagues oppose such commonsense, practical policies that save the States money, expand access for low income and disabled children, help rural hospitals and make progress to rebalancing the institutional bias in the Medicaid program?
I am saddened that it appears my colleagues cannot put partisan politics aside and get behind a bill that saves money for States, protects and expands access, and preserves benefits. I urge my colleagues to support the Senate bill. Let's show the American people that we can put politics aside and stand together and get things done for the good of the country.
http://thomas.loc.gov/