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Medicare Actuary Says He Was Muzzled

March 13, 2004
In the latest uproar over the new Medicare law, the chief Medicare actuary says he was threatened with dismissal if he disclosed his actual cost estimates to Congress. Richard S. Foster told Knight Ridder newspapers his cost estimates were much higher than those given to Congress.

Thomas A. Scully, who was the Medicare administrator at the time, denied threatening to fire him Foster though he acknowledged that he had had "disagreements" with him.

"I never told Rick he would be fired," said Scully, who quit to become a lobbyist a short time after the Medicare law was passed.

Congress barely approved the controversial new Medicare law, which provides a prescription drug benefit beginning in 2006. The House passed it by only one vote, 216-215, under heavy pressure from the Republican leadership.

Numerous Congressmen said that if Foster's true estimates had been provided, the measure would probably not have passed. Foster has said only that his estimates were "much higher" than the $400 billion figure provided to Congress.

The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said the withholding of the actuary's cost estimates was "reprehensible."

"We ought to bring this bill back for another vote" because it was passed on the basis of "untruthful misrepresentations," Daschle said.

Knight Ridder newspapers reported that in an e-mail message to colleagues on June 26, Mr. Foster wrote, "I'm perhaps no longer in grave danger of being fired, but there remains a strong likelihood that I will have to resign in protest of the withholding of important technical information from key policy makers for political reasons."

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