Republican Senators Introduce Bill To Cap Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Spending

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Thursday introduced legislation that would cap spending on the Medicare prescription drug benefit to the original Congressional Budget Office estimate of $395 billion over 10 years, CongressDaily reports. The new CBO estimate for the benefit is $849 billion between 2006 and 2015.

The bill would establish annual spending caps for the benefit, and the president would be required to submit legislation to scale back the benefit if spending goes beyond that amount. Graham said, "I was always concerned the projected costs of the Medicare prescription drug benefit would turn out to be wrong. Even I was surprised at how quickly and dramatically the projected costs of the program spiked" (CongressDaily, 3/11).