 us administration pulls back on medicare drug benefit proposals in january the obama administration proposed a series of changes to the medicare part d prescription drug benefit that would no longer require insurers to offer coverage for certain types of drugs and would also limit the choice of part d policies availble in any given region of the country on monday the administration pulled back from the proposal after pressure came from a variety of groups to withdraw the changes and both republicans and democrats expressed opposition what happened for a discussion on the issue see  wwwreuterscom article 20140310 ususahealthcaremedicareidusbrea2706420140310  for another view don t miss  wwwwashingtonpostcom blogs rightturn wp 20140311 obamaretreatsonmedicarepartdchanges  it s worth noting this final paragraph of the reuters story the 70 billion part d program launched a decade ago under former president george w bush over 10 years its costs of 346 billion have been 45 percent lower than initially projected    administration pulls back medicare drug benefit proposals  