[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1277 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1277

To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate how 
    to eliminate the gap in benefits between standard coverage and 
  catastrophic coverage under the Medicare prescription drug program 
        under part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 1, 2007

 Mr. Butterfield (for himself, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Weiner, Mr. Meeks of New 
  York, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mrs. 
 Christensen, Mr. Al Green of Texas, and Mr. Miller of North Carolina) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
   Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and 
 Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate how 
    to eliminate the gap in benefits between standard coverage and 
  catastrophic coverage under the Medicare prescription drug program 
        under part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits 
Gap Elimination Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. DIRECTING SECRETARY TO INVESTIGATE SOLUTIONS TO ELIMINATE 
              BENEFIT GAP UNDER MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this Act referred to 
as the ``Secretary'') shall conduct a study to investigate how to 
eliminate the gap in benefits for covered part D drugs under the 
Medicare prescription drug program under part D of title XVIII of the 
Social Security Act after a part D eligible individual's costs exceed 
the initial coverage limit, as described in section 1860D-2(b)(3) of 
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-102(b)(3)), and before the 
individual obtains protection against high out-of-pocket expenditures 
under section 1860D-2(b)(4) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-102(b)(4)).

SEC. 3. REPORT.

    Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary shall submit a report to Congress on the findings from 
the study conducted under section 2 and shall include in the report 
recommendations for legislation based on those findings.
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