Dems: Probe Medicare Drug Hush-Up
Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into whether the Bush administration's Medicare chief pressured a subordinate to withhold estimates of the cost of last year's Medicare legislation.
During months of writing the Medicare prescription drug benefit and other changes to the government-run health program for older and disabled Americans, the administration refused to provide estimates of the legislation.
The Associated Press reported in June that Thomas Scully, who ran the Medicare agency until December, threatened to fire his top actuary, Rick Foster, if Foster released his calculations to Democrats who requested the analysis. Scully said his comments were "heated rhetoric in middle of the night."
The matter has taken on a new life because the administration projected in the budget it submitted to Congress last month that the 10-year cost of the bill would be $534 billion, instead of the $395 billion estimate used in writing the legislation.
Foster estimated in June that a version similar to what became law would cost $551 billion, according to a document House Democrats obtained and released in January.
The lower number was politically significant, as nine Republican lawmakers in the House stated before final congressional approval of the legislation that they would not support a bill that cost more than $400 billion.
Democratic Reps. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Rose DeLauro of Connecticut, Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and Fortney "Pete" Stark of California, joined by Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked acting HHS inspector general Dara Corrigan on Friday to investigate whether Scully pressured Foster to withhold the estimate last June.
In their letter to Corrigan, the Democrats said the incident fits a pattern of allowing political concerns to override the work of career employees. Foster is a civil servant.
Scully left the administration in December to join the law firm Alston and Bird's health care practice. He received an ethics waiver to work on the Medicare bill last year, despite having contacts with prospective employers who would be deeply affected by it.