How the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Became Law

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


 

july 12, 2001: President Bush lays out plans for Medicare prescription drug benefit.

june 20, 2003: Medicare actuary Richard Foster is warned not to disclose to Congress his estimate of the proposal’s true cost. “The consequences for insubordination are extremely severe,” Foster is told.

june 27, 2003: Senate and House approve different versions of the drug bill. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., one of the legislation’s principal authors, describes it as “a shot of legislative botox [that] will rejuvenate an antiquated program by eliminating the age-old lines of a different era.”

july 15, 2003: Conference committee of 5 Democrats and 12 Republicans begins work to reconcile the two versions of the bill.

nov 13, 2003: President Bush calls on Congress to “finish the job.”

nov 17, 2003: aarp endorses bill, launches $7 million ad campaign.

nov 21, 2003: Bush calls wavering Republicans from Air Force One.

nov 22, 2003:
3:01am3:01 a.m. House begins voting on unified bill; roll call to last 15 minutes.
3:30am3:30 a.m. With bill losing 212-to-214, Speaker Dennis Hastert keeps voting open.
4:15am4:15 a.m. Bush calls several lawmakers, pleading for votes.
4:20am4:20 a.m. Hastert and hhs Secretary Tommy Thompson, who have been scurrying around House floor rounding up votes, corral Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich.; he’ll later say (and then recant claim) that they offered donations and endorsements for his son’s congressional campaign in return for a vote.
5:53am5:53 a.m. After longest roll call in House history, bill is approved 220-to-215.

dec 16, 2003: Thomas Scully resigns as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joins Alston & Bird, where he will lobby for drug companies.

march 5, 2004: Patrick Morrisey, who as chief health counsel of the House energy and commerce committee was a principal staff author of the bill, takes job as lobbyist for drugmakers. In all, 15 members of Congress, staffers, and officials who worked on the drug bill will go to work for industry.

sept 30, 2004: Following an investigation of Rep. Smith’s bribery allegations, House ethics committee admonishes three representatives, including Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Rep. Smith himself, for “making public statements that risked impugning the reputation of the House.”

dec 15, 2004: Rep. Tauzin named president of drug lobby group PhRMA; annual pay reported at $2 million.

 

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate