Prometheus 6

We don't need a probe, we need a decision. And the right decision would be a reevaluation of the bill with the real cost estimates taken into account.

WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson joined Democrats on Tuesday in calling on the department's inspector general to investigate whether the Medicare chief pressured a subordinate to withhold estimates of the cost of last year's Medicare legislation.

Those estimates -- higher than those projected by congressional budget analysts -- have yet to be made public or turned over to congressional Democrats who have requested them, although Thompson said his staff is gathering the documents.

With the Bush administration's efforts to showcase the new Medicare prescription drug law slowed by a steady stream of accusations by Democrats about ethical improprieties in drafting, passing and promoting the law, Thompson spent more than an hour to address a range of criticism.

Thompson did not dispute the thrust of the story, reported by the Associated Press in June, that Thomas Scully, who ran the Medicare agency until December, threatened to fire his top actuary, Rick Foster, if Foster released his calculations to Democrats. Scully said his comments were "heated rhetoric in middle of the night."

But the matter has taken on a new life because the administration projected in the budget it submitted to Congress last month that the 10-year cost of the bill would be $534 billion, instead of the $395 billion estimate used in writing the legislation. Foster estimated in June that a version similar to what became law would cost $551 billion, according to a document subsequently obtained and released by House Democrats.