Prescription Drug Plan Causes Unease in Seniors
Aug. 12–They came in wheelchairs to the Rasmussen Senior Center in Oildale Thursday to hear their congressman tout the new federal prescription drug plan that goes into effect on Jan. 1. What they heard angered some of them.
As U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas detailed the controversial plan and opened up the floor for questions, he seemed unprepared for the reaction. Thomas and the state’s secretary of health and human services had spent the previous 15 minutes detailing what the government was going to do for seniors and disabled Americans.
But it sounded like folly to many of the seniors like Billy Olson.
“For the most seriously ill, we’ll be really hurt by this program,” said Olson, who has multiple sclerosis and requires up to $1,500 in therapy and pills a month. “The way it sounds to me is that I’m better off to stay with the charity. And my situation isn’t unique.”
Some favored the prescription drug bill. Like Marian Threshold, who has to choose between medications her doctors said were necessary because she can’t afford them all. She chooses depending on what aches the most that month. The prescription bill would cover more of her drug costs.
Thomas said the plan could provide prescription drug coverage to 42 million of the neediest Californians. Anyone who qualifies for Medicare would qualify for the plan.
The government estimates that the average monthly premium for the drug coverage will be $32.20, about 14 percent less than the $37.37 that was offered under the administration’s first proposal.
U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said the program will save members an average of $1,300 a year in drug costs.
In general, the plan will pay 75 percent of initial drug costs up to $2,250 annually after a $250 deductible.
But it offers no payment for drug costs from $2,251 to $5,099 — forcing consumers to pay out of pocket.
More than 25 percent of seniors are likely to have drug costs that fall in that gap, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“My pills cost me $3,000. How do they expect me to pay all of that by myself?” asked Eileen Dietz, a 62-year-old retired teacher. “I’ve done my reading and I’m better off on Medi-Cal.”
After the period for questions closed, Thomas reassured the audience that “no one will lose their prescription drug program.”
Those enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state-federal insurance program, will be automatically enrolled in a Medicare prescription drug plan this fall.
The government estimates that up to 30 million of the 42 million eligible Medicare beneficiaries will sign up during the voluntary enrollment period.
A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation in April found that only 9 percent of seniors definitely plan to enroll in a Medicare drug plan. But 37 percent said they would not.
Most seniors either said they hadn’t heard enough to decide or didn’t know whether they would enroll in 2006, according to the poll. The drug plan will be available through private insurance companies, which will offer different plans at a range of prices.
Information about specific plans, including which drugs are covered, will not be available until October. Enrollment for the voluntary coverage will be open Nov. 15 to May. 15.
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