Medicare Cost Estimates Spark Disputes in Congress
100886
Rising cost projections for the new  Medicare drug benefit alarmed U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday and  set off renewed calls to restrain spiraling drug prices and  allow pharmaceutical imports from Canada.
95414
An end-of-the year push in Congress to stave off a 10 percent cut in the fees Medicare pays doctors has revived political interest in another thorny issue: whether physicians should be able to own the hospitals they send their patients to.
303552
Sorry, Senator, but the numbers don't add up.
166382
A new poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans favor allowing the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for the Medicare program, suggesting there will be considerable political pressure on the next Congress to do so.
196466
The cost of living adjustment intended to help more than 47 million Social Security recipients keep up with inflation is expected to be a tad larger in 2005 than it was this year, but the bad news is that much of the increase will be eaten up by higher Medicare premiums.
730725
Medicare faces trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities, but legislators are constantly tempted to increase benefits and thus spending.
121692
Hit with a record-high increase in Medicare premiums, seniors also are being bombarded with competing claims by the presidential candidates over who to blame.
399878
Though candidates suggest adapting the health care program that covers Congress and offering it to millions of unisured Americans, such a plan would unlikely cut costs.
104760
As doctors voiced anger at an Annapolis rally yesterday over escalating insurance costs, legislative leaders said they remain far from a consensus on how to address the problem before Maryland physicians&#39; bills come due next month.
173128
Soon to be in charge of Congress, Democrats are looking to chip away at billions of dollars in payments to the health insurance companies that run Medicare's managed care programs.
330553
The former Medicare administrator should repay his government salary because of his efforts to keep higher estimates of the cost of a prescription drug plan from Congress last year, congressional investigators said Tuesday.
662691
As Democrats and Republicans disagreed on the accomplishments of the 108th Congress, one thing is certain: Hundreds of programs &#151; from highway building to welfare reform &#151; are being kept on life support through temporary measures because lawmakers failed to meet deadline after deadline for renewing them.
568252
Proposed cuts in Medicare payments for cancer drugs will be nearly double Bush administration estimates, potentially limiting access to care, according to a survey of cancer doctors.
266243
OTTAWA (CP) - Day one of a national summit intended to fix medicare for a generation degenerated into a numbers war, with premiers poking holes into what Prime Minister Paul Martin claimed was a federal cash offer of $58.
510175
WASHINGTON - The 108th Congress soon will be history, a tumultuous two years that, depending on party affiliation, was the best of times or the worst of times.    Of course Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate, expressed pride in a Congress that passed a major Medicare prescription drug bill, gave President Bush the money he needed for Iraq and substantially increased spending for defense and homeland security...
224740
New cost estimates have prompted many lawmakers to say they want to revisit the new prescription drug benefit law.
633337
OTTAWA (CP) - Day one of a national summit intended to fix medicare for a generation degenerated into a numbers war, with premiers poking holes into what Prime Minister Paul Martin claimed was a federal cash offer of &#36;58.1 billion over 10 years.