Medicare prescription benefit to cost 1/3 more than originally estimated.

It seems like a pittance, really, just a little rivulet pouring into the ocean of red ink produced by this administration. For what it's worth, however, the White House finally came clean and admitted that the price tag on the prescription benefit for Medicare enrollees won't cost $400 billion over ten years, as originally claimed by the Congressional Budget Office, but $530-540 billion instead, which is what the President's proposed budget will reflect. (The New York Times article by Robert Pear is here.) This would be tolerable if the benefits flowed to seniors who need them, but for the most part they don't. Time to break open the bubbly, Big Pharm? This might have been a better deal for you than even your lobbiests were willing to claim, or admit publicly.