Richard S. Foster

Richard S. Foster, the "government's longtime chief analyst of Medicare costs said" March 12, 2004, "that Bush administration officials threatened to fire him last year if he disclosed to Congress that he believed the prescription drug legislation favored by the White House would prove far more expensive than lawmakers had been told." 

Foster, "a nonpartisan Department of Health and Human Services official who has been Medicare's chief actuary for nine years, said he nearly resigned in protest because he thought the top Medicare administrator, and perhaps White House officials, were acting against the public interest by withholding information about how much changes to the program would cost." 

"Text of June 26, 2003, email from Richard S. Foster, chief actuary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [published by Knight Ridder Newspapers]:


 * "This whole episode which has now gone on for three weeks has been pretty nightmarish. I'm perhaps no longer in grave danger of being fired, but there remains a strong likelihood that I will have to resign in protest of the withholding of important technical information from key policy makers for political reasons. Stay tuned."

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Bush regime
 * Bush administration scandals
 * Scoregate
 * Social Security Trust Funds