110 HR 1277 IH: Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits U.S. House of Representatives 2007-03-01 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1277 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.

1.

Short title

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

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)).

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.