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Medicare benefit, Hillary await new Congress

November 8, 2000 8:00 AM UTC

Although the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and the precise make-up of the Senate remained uncertain on Wednesday, at least one result of the 2000 election is clear: there will be extremely strong pressure for Congress and the White House to provide senior citizens with Medicare prescription drug coverage. Successful candidates from both parties emphasized the Medicare benefit during their campaigns and in victory speeches. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who defeated Spencer Abraham to take one of Michigan's Senate seats, this morning said that lowering drug prices for seniors will be her top priority. Abraham was one of the few border-state politicians from either party to oppose drug reimportation. In Washington state, the only Senate race too close to call this morning pitted incumbent Republican Slade Gordon, who introduced and pushed hard for reimportation legislation, against Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who campaigned on promises to lower drug prices for Medicare recipients.

And although the complex arithmetic for settling the election makes it unlikely the Democrats will take control of the Senate, the razor thin Republican majority will give high-profile Democrats a high degree of power on health care issues. New York Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton is likely to join Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare, FDA, and other areas critical to the biotech industry. Republican Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vt.), who would retain his chairmanship of the HELP Committee under a Republican majority, has been a strong supporter of drug reimportation. ...