State Health Secretary Anthony McCann said “it?s not realistic at all” that a phone call to President Bush by Gov. Robert Ehrlich would help get the state a waiver allowing federal drug discounts for the uninsured, as health care activists and union leaders are urging the governor to do.
Ehrlich?s “got good ties to George Bush,” said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Citizens? Health Initiative. “Has he picked up the telephone? If he hasn?t, he should be ashamed of himself.”
A waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would allow the state to provide discounts of 40 percent to 50 percent on prescription drugs for 40,000 uninsured Marylanders who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
McCann said, “We have not received any official approval or disapproval,” but it is not looking good for the waiver. “We understand that a number of other states have been turned down,” he said, and it seems likely Maryland will be as well, “because the amount of money that we put up was insufficient.”
“There is very little that sort of picking up the phone to get something done can do,” McCann said. “I worked in the federal government all my life.”
“It?s extraordinarily bureaucratic” and “there are a series of court cases” affecting the decision, he said.
“Even if Vinnie were correct, there are some legal constraints,” McCann said.
House Speaker Michael Busch said, “Everybody on both sides of the aisle voted for this,” and the governor signed it, putting $1.8 million in the budget to implement it. “All it needs is a push from the president of the United States.”
McCann dismissed suggestions that his department was not serious about obtaining a waiver to get the federal drug discounts. “We have submitted a number of waivers over time” on other health care issues, and a number have been approved, he said. “We worked with the legislature to come up with a proposal” that would be approved.
