Medicare Secrecy Inquiry Is Silenced

House Republicans on Thursday shut down an inquiry by Democrats into whether the Bush administration acted illegally or inappropriately last year when it withheld from Congress its estimates of the true cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill.

At issue are allegations that then-Medicare Administrator Thomas A. Scully threatened to fire his top actuary if he gave lawmakers his analyses showing the costs would be much higher than administration officials were saying publicly.

Thursday’s conclusion of a Ways and Means Committee hearing all but ensured that two individuals central to the controversy -- Scully and White House aide Doug Badger -- would not testify before Congress.

Separately, the Health and Human Services Department is conducting an internal investigation into the matter, and Democratic lawmakers have requested civil and criminal inquiries.

Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee had asked Scully and Badger to answer questions about when President Bush and top-ranking officials were told that internal estimates of the Medicare bill’s cost were more than one-third higher than the $400 billion Bush had set aside, and why those analyses had not been shared with lawmakers.

But White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, in a letter to committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), cited “long-standing White House policy” against having White House staff members testify before Congress as the reason Badger would not appear.

And Scully, now a private consultant, said in a letter to Thomas that he was unable to appear before the committee because “unfortunately, for the past ten days I have been traveling.”

Committee Democrats rejected both explanations. In the case of Badger, they said at least 45 high-ranking Clinton administration officials had testified before Congress; in the case of Scully, they offered to let him appear at a later time. But Republicans quashed the Democrats’ attempts to subpoena the men.

Republican committee members accused the Democrats of trying to capitalize on the controversy, which erupted last month when Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster told reporters that Scully had threatened to fire him if he responded to Democratic requests for analyses of the pending legislation.

Thomas, the committee chairman, said that although he was willing to use “whatever tools are necessary to get to the bottom of a violation of law,” he was not willing to issue subpoenas to Badger and Scully “to satisfy someone’s whim or curiosity.”

As for preliminary estimates by Foster indicating that the Medicare bill could cost as much as $551 billion over 10 years, Thomas said the information “probably would not have enlightened Congress as much as confused Congress.” Thomas chaired the House-Senate conference committee that completed the legislation.

In January, the Bush administration revised the estimated cost of the Medicare overhaul to $534 billion.

Democrats, who noted the original Medicare bill passed the House in June by one vote, charged that a broader constitutional issue was at stake: How far can the executive branch go in withholding information from Congress that could affect the outcome of a vote?

In November, a narrowly divided Congress passed the Medicare bill, which created a new prescription drug benefit and gave private insurers and drug companies billions of dollars to lure seniors and the disabled into managed care plans.

Several conservative Republicans, who were concerned about the bill’s projected $400-billion cost, voted for the legislation only after high-pressure lobbying by Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.

“The main issue is who knew about the actuarial figure, and why wasn’t it disclosed in a timely fashion?” said Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.). “There was a cover-up of this information and we want to know how high the cover-up went.”

Procedural maneuvering and partisan wrangling dominated much of Thursday’s hearing, which was more than half over before its two witnesses began their testimony.

Jeff Flick, regional administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in San Francisco, confirmed that while serving as Scully’s special assistant he composed an e-mail to Foster that reiterated Scully’s insistence that Foster withhold information requested by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Hayward).

“The administrator emphasized that if Rick does not adhere to these instructions, it is outright insubordination and insubordination carries serious consequences,” Flick said, adding that Scully’s “actual language may have been more colorful.”

Scully, who has denied threatening to fire Foster, acknowledged in his letter to Thomas that “there is no question whatsoever that I made it very clear to Mr. Foster, both directly and indirectly, that I, as his supervisor, would decide when he would communicate with Congress.”

Leslie M. Norwalk, acting deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told committee members that she had advised an anguished Foster that although his office was not legally required to share information with Congress, the office was subject to Scully’s authority.