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Trump Promised Seniors Drug Discount Cards. They May Be Illegal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/trump-prescription-drugs.html-snip-
The plan was hastily devised in the weeks after the collapse of an agreement between the White House and pharmaceutical industry to lower Medicare drug costs. In negotiations, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, had insisted that drug makers pay for $100 discount cards that would be mailed to seniors before November, which some in the industry referred to as “Trump cards.”
Days later, Mr. Meadows approached White House officials who work on health policy, steering his new idea of a government-funded discount card to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is run by Seema Verma, a close White House ally. Administration lawyers and officials in the White House budget office began to assess the plan, and are still doing so.
Many of the officials assigned to enact the policy view it as legally dubious. Generally, major changes in Medicare policy require Congress to pass legislation. And numerous officials balked at the election-eve timing of the plan, fearing liability if they delivered what the White House wanted. Mr. Meadows acknowledged that pushback on Wednesday.
-snip-
Under the Hatch Act, government officials are prohibited from using government resources to engage in partisan political activity, and from commanding other government employees to do so. Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at the government watchdog group Common Cause, said that if explicit communications surfaced linking the discount cards to the president’s re-election, health officials could face punishment.
-snip-
The plan was hastily devised in the weeks after the collapse of an agreement between the White House and pharmaceutical industry to lower Medicare drug costs. In negotiations, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, had insisted that drug makers pay for $100 discount cards that would be mailed to seniors before November, which some in the industry referred to as “Trump cards.”
Days later, Mr. Meadows approached White House officials who work on health policy, steering his new idea of a government-funded discount card to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is run by Seema Verma, a close White House ally. Administration lawyers and officials in the White House budget office began to assess the plan, and are still doing so.
Many of the officials assigned to enact the policy view it as legally dubious. Generally, major changes in Medicare policy require Congress to pass legislation. And numerous officials balked at the election-eve timing of the plan, fearing liability if they delivered what the White House wanted. Mr. Meadows acknowledged that pushback on Wednesday.
-snip-
Under the Hatch Act, government officials are prohibited from using government resources to engage in partisan political activity, and from commanding other government employees to do so. Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at the government watchdog group Common Cause, said that if explicit communications surfaced linking the discount cards to the president’s re-election, health officials could face punishment.
-snip-
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