(WASHINGTON, DC) – Following a 2:30 AM vote on a bill backed by drug companies, Congressman Dennis Moore (Third District – Kansas) today sharply criticized a bill that puts seniors’ hopes for a prescription drug benefit in the hands of insurance companies and HMOs.

The House-passed bill was debated late at night, under rules that prohibited any alternatives or amendments from even being offered.

"While the Democratic plan, I believe, was too costly, there are other plans that provide a voluntary benefit through Medicare. If we had been allowed to have an actual debate on this important issue, perhaps we would have been able to reach a compromise that provides real relief to seniors struggling with the cost of prescription drugs," Moore said.

"Instead, we got an early-morning example of election year politics at its worst," he said. "Pollsters and the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbyists wrote this bill, plain and simple."

According to the Washington Post, the bill "would depend on people to get coverage from private insurance companies and health plans" instead of making the coverage "a new, voluntary part of Medicare." The bill does not specify how much money seniors would pay in monthly premiums, leaving that decision to insurance companies when plans become available in 2005.

The bill also allows restrictions to be placed on what drugs are covered under the plan. If a senior needed a medication other than what the insurer said was the "standard" drug, she would have to pay 100% of the cost of that medication. Insurers would also be allowed to restrict the benefit to their network of pharmacies, cutting out the senior’s trusted local pharmacist.

"It is shameful that election-year politics have once again pushed aside the interests of senior citizens. Seniors deserve a prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare. But the bill passed last night would force them to deal with the same people that are driving up the cost of health care now," Moore said.

"To say this bill provides a Medicare prescription drug benefit is to perpetrate a cruel deception upon America’s seniors," he said. "It’s really a hand-out for insurance companies."

Moore is a supporter of modernizing Medicare with a prescription drug benefit. In the last Congress, he supported a bill that would have offered a voluntary benefit to all seniors on Medicare. The budget he offered this year also set aside funds for a prescription drug benefit.