Bipartisan Plan for Medicare Reform Could Be ‘Starting Point’

President Bush "indicated" to some bipartisan congressional members in a "closed-door White House meeting" yesterday that he would favor using the proposal created by the 1999 National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare as a "starting point" for broad-based Medicare reform, CongressDaily reports. That proposal, drafted by commission Chair Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and Vice Chair Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), would have moved managed care companies "into a competitive mix" with the traditional fee-for-service program and relied on private insurers to deliver a prescription drug benefit. While most of the commission supported the plan, it "fell just short of attracting the 'supermajority'" required for the panel to make a formal recommendation to Congress. While Bush "spoke highly" of the proposal, he did not endorse the entire plan and said "little more" on the subject. CongressDaily notes that a "source" said that Bush "did not even talk about his own" Medicare prescription drug benefit. But Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said, "I don't interpret what [Bush is] saying as ... he's not going to push his [own] package." In the meantime, Breaux said that next week he intends to introduce Medicare reform plans he wrote with Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) (Koffler, CongressDaily, 1/31).