Administration disappointed by injunction on drug discounts

By CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration says it is "disappointed" by a federal judge's decision to temporarily halt the president's plan to give drug discount cards to elderly Americans, arguing the move will delay efforts to provide "immediate and necessary relief to the millions of Americans who are forced to pay full price for their prescription drugs."

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday that the ruling "is harmful to out nation's seniors, and the President is committed to helping seniors get prescription drugs, and wants to do so quickly and directly."

Late Thursday, a federal judge granted a request from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores for a preliminary injunction, temporarily stopping the program, according to a spokesman for the Health and Human Services department.

"We are working with the Department of Justice to consider all our legal options," said Tom Scully, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a statement. "Our goal remains to provide discounts to millions of seniors as soon as possible."

In July, President Bush announced a plan to give all senior Medicare beneficiaries a new discount card, which would make for discounts of about 15 to 30 percent on their prescriptions.

Companies managing the cards would negotiate lower prices with drug manufacturers, and seniors would pay a one-time maximum fee of about $25. The plan, which was supposed to be up and running by January, would not need congressional approval.

Scully said his agency received 28 applications from companies so far to take part in the program.

"A Medicare-endorsed prescription drug card would give significant discounts to seniors and disabled Americans that are available to most other Americans now," said Scully. "It is a shame that most seniors are still paying full retail prices for prescription drugs."

Scully said the administration would work on all "judicial and legislative alternatives to provide immediate relief on drug prices," and said the federal court's decision "intensifies" the need for Congress to take up Bush's Medicare reform proposals, including providing a prescription drug benefit to seniors.

When Bush unveiled his discount card plan, many Democrats said groups such as the American Association for Retired Persons already offered discount cards to their members, and said what was really needed was legislation giving prescription coverage to the nation's seniors.