An Open Letter to Congress
On the Final Medicare Prescription Drug Legislation
From Concerned Taxpayer and Policy Groups

November 20, 2003

The undersigned groups are strongly opposed to the final Medicare prescription drug legislation and urge all Members to vote “no.”

While there are many bad elements of this bill, among the most reckless are:

• Adding to Medicare’s Unfunded Liabilities. Medicare is already projected to go bankrupt. Nonetheless, this bill will unconscionably add hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities to the program.

• Deficits. This bill will add at least $400 billion to the already record budget deficits projected in the near term. If past history is any guide, we can expect the actual cost to be much higher.

• Millions of Retirees Will Lose Good Coverage. Despite provisions that attempt to prevent companies from dropping coverage for their retirees, we believe this bill will lead to millions of retirees losing benefits currently being provided by their former employers.

• A Retreat on the Promise of Reform. Real reforms have largely given way to “fig leaves” such as demonstration projects (which Congress has a remarkable tendency of ignoring or undermining anyway).