In 1994 prescription drug coverage was merged into President Clinton's health care reform plan. Clinton's health care advisors, mindful of the 1988 debacle, sought the political support of the elderly by adding a prescription drug benefit and long-term care for the severely disabled to the existing Medicare framework without a premium increase. The overture failed because the various interest groups representing seniors deemed the modest incentives an inadequate response to the long-term care problems faced by the elderly. Also, by targeting benefits to a small segment of the elderly (those below the poverty threshold or close to it), President Clinton threatened to undermine the pillar of universality that kept the program popular among seniors. Seniors groups were outspoken in their criticism of what they perceived as a high-handed attempt to transform Medicare from a universal program to a means-tested welfare benefit. Want to get customized term papers? Our essays writers are qualified; our assistances are inexpensive! A prescription drug benefit for seniors was never more than a small detail in the grand vision of universal coverage. Five years later, however, when congressional attention narrowed to focus on updating the Medicare program, prescription drugs became a driving force.
On 29 June 1999 President Clinton unveiled a plan that he claimed would keep Medicare solvent for the next generation of beneficiaries and make it behave more like a private insurance company. In the late 1990s, solvency was the watchword used by politicians anxious to preserve America's cumbersome entitlement system. There was growing concern, particularly among the baby boom generation, that Social Security and Medicare would buckle under the strain of providing for them during their retirement years. The fear was magnified by pessimistic reports produced by program trustees that predicted Social Security and Medicare would begin to run massive deficits in less than two decades. President Clinton's bold proposal to stabilize Medicare also contained an important expansion of the program through the addition of a prescription drug benefit. The drug benefit was considered crucial in order to attract the political support of America's powerful seniors' lobby. In his press conference the President declared, “This is a drug benefit our seniors can afford, at a price America can afford.” Participation in the drug plan was not compulsory, but the Clinton administration's health experts predicted that most people would choose it because it presented such a good bargain. For a small premium of $24 a month, Medicare would cover half the beneficiaries' prescription drug costs up to an annual limit of $2,000. The premium would increase gradually to $44 by 2008, and so would the benefit: to an annual maximum of $2,500.