Reid says don’t use Nevada in pilot program

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada should not be selected to participate in an upcoming Medicare pilot program since it may hurt coverage, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today.

The Medicare prescription drug plan passed by Congress last year includes a pilot program planned for 2010 that will select cities to demonstrate a private competition of using Medicare and regular health plans such as PPOs, HMOs, or the regular fee-for-service Medicare plan.

Selection will not take place until 2009, according to the Health and Human Services Department. Secretary Tommy Thompson said of the six cities, one will have to be from the four most populous metropolitan service areas, one from the four least populated and one from a service area that covers more than one state. No more than two can be from any one region of the country.

Las Vegas fits two of those criteria, but Reid introduced a bill today that would exempt Nevada from participating in the pilot program.

Reid said the seniors would have to pay more under the plan and said he would try to stop "Nevadans from being used as guinea pigs in this ill-advised experiment."

"This experiment is really nothing more than a deceitful way of forcing seniors to join a Medicare HMO plan or pay significantly more for traditional Medicare," Reid said. "I refuse to have Nevada's seniors coerced into paying more for health care.

"Senior citizens in Nevada should not have to pay more than their neighbors for the same Medicare services, which is exactly what would happen under the Bush administration's proposal."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., also introduced bills exempting their states.

Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., voted against the prescription drug plan in November.