Federal Medicare Owes California

By Ted W. Lieu

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ failure to properly implement Medicare prescription drug coverage has put California’s most vulnerable citizens at risk. At the beginning of this year, patients enrolled in both Medicare and Medi-Cal were automatically transferred into the Federal Medicare Part D Drug program. Unfortunately, because of severe implementation problems in the new Medicare system, thousands of people found themselves with no coverage at all. Many seniors and the disabled were deprived of life-saving medications and charged hundreds of dollars for prescription drugs that just two weeks before cost them as little as $5.

That is an unacceptable situation, which is why last week my fellow state legislators and I voted to pass a bipartisan urgency measure, Assembly Bill 132, authored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. AB 132 will allocate up to $150 million for 30 days to cover prescription drug costs for low-income and elderly Californians who have been improperly denied coverage under the Federal Medicare Part D drug program. I am proud to have supported urgency measure AB 132, which I know will save lives.

Going forward, however, we need to (1) ensure California gets fully reimbursed for bailing out the federal government, (2) demand accountability from the federal agency responsible for these serious mistakes and (3) pull out of the Medicare Part D program if the problems are not fixed.

I will fight, along with the governor and my colleagues in the state Legislature, to make sure that the federal government reimburses California taxpayers for every cent, plus interest, that we spend to cover the federal government’s mistakes, now and into the future. A high-level representative from the state Department of Health Services recently testified before the Assembly Health Committee and stated that the Medicare Part D failures appear to be a “recurring problem.” He said he “expects additional problems with the system in February.”

If California spends another $150 million in February and again in March to bail out Medicare, we will reach nearly half a billion dollars in just three months. That is why I have co-signed a letter requesting that the state attorney general file suit against the federal government to recover all of our costs.

I will also fight to ensure that we hold the federal government accountable, as there has been scant acceptance of responsibility and virtually no accountability. We still do not know when the Medicare Part D problems will be rectified. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt should fire those responsible for implementing the Medicare Part D program, and he should provide California a date certain as to when the problems will be fixed.

If the implementation failures continue for our Medi-Cal enrollees who were automatically transferred to the federal system, then I will fight for and support legislation to take California out of this portion of the failing federal program. Similar legislation has already been introduced in other states. We should not, and cannot, continue to take part in a federal program if it puts our senior citizens and the disabled at risk.

I will be working tirelessly in the coming weeks and months with seniors and those with disabilities throughout the South Bay to distribute information and answer any questions they may have. I invite anyone with questions or concerns to contact my office at 310- 615-3515 or e-mail me at Assemblymember.Lieu@assembly.ca.gov.

Ted W. Lieu, D-Torrance, represents the 53rd Assembly District. He serves on the Assembly Health Committee.