BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

Frist-Breaux prescription plan

May 9, 2000 7:00 AM UTC

Senators Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and John Breaux (D-La.) announced that they will abandon their comprehensive Medicare reform legislation (S. 1895) in favor of a more limited bill that provides a prescription drug benefit and allows the Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA) more flexibility in using the private sector the deliver Medicare benefits.

The new "Breaux-Frist 2000" plan would use federal money to subsidize drug benefits provided by competing private sector health care plans, which would be overseen by a new executive-branch Medicare agency modeled on the Social Security Administration. The agency would oversee the competing plans and ensure that plans offer specific core benefits along with the new drug coverage. ...