Judicial Watch
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For Immediate Release |
| May 10, 2004 |
Contact: Press Office
202-646-5188
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Judicial Watch Forces Release Of Medicare Documents
HHS Effort To Withhold From Lawmakers Higher Cost Estimate For Prescription Drug Bill ‘Probably’ Violated Law
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, has obtained documents on the costs of the Medicare prescription drug bill that were deliberately withheld from congressional lawmakers and the American people. Congress last year approved the “Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003” based on a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of $395 billion over 10 years. But a $534 billion cost estimate by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was not provided to lawmakers.
Judicial Watch acquired from HHS 13 pages of documents related to the Medicare prescription drug bill’s cost, including an analysis of the $139 billion difference between the estimates. The analysis was conducted by Richard S. Foster, chief actuary of HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Mr. Foster reportedly was threatened with termination from his job if he revealed the higher cost estimate to Congress. The documents were obtained by Judicial Watch under a March 22, 2004, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to HHS and the CMS. Judicial Watch is appealing an HHS determination to withhold approximately 149 pages of documents and may pursue additional records. (The documents are available on the Judicial Watch Internet site: www.JudicialWatch.org.)
In a report made public May 3, the Congressional Research Service said efforts to keep Mr. Foster from giving congressional lawmakers his projections of the bill’s cost probably violated federal law. Mr. Foster testified in March before the House Ways and Mean Committee that then-Medicare administrator Thomas Scully prevented him from turning over cost information to lawmakers.
Seven Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee requested from HHS the same documents, without success. The agency only produced the documents for the committee once Judicial Watch uncovered their existence through its FOIA request.
“Judicial Watch is glad to do its part to bring these important documents to light,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It’s imperative that we have transparency and openness in government so that there can be informed debate on important public-policy issues. In this case, the truth about the cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill should have been made available.”
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