One-card Medicare rule proves cost-defective for some seniors

[nosmokes]

if they had just negotiated with the drug companies for a bulk discount price there would have been some real savings. of course, it would have been a lot harder to pass along a windfall to your friends in big pharma that way. ssh
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original

One-card Medicare rule proves cost-defective for some seniors

Libby George,  Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
July 29, 2004




WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Ken and Marjorie Anderson of Anoka have one of the new, highly touted Medicare-approved drug discount cards, but they've found it's actually costing them money.
Under the Prescription Drug Act, signed by President Bush in December, each senior is limited to one card. The Andersons were forced by Medicare rules to forfeit their preferred card and take one offered by their health maintenance organization (HMO), effectively costing them more than $100 per month.
While the new Medicare drug cards offer seniors up to 17 percent savings on prescription drug costs, the Andersons and some other Minnesota seniors say the promises of discounts are overblown.
"They made such a big to-do about helping seniors," said Ken Anderson, 71, "but this won't really help us at all."
The cards do provide up to $600 in annual drug credits for the lowest-income seniors. But others on Medicare grumble that it is difficult to decipher which of the 48 cards available in the state would best serve them, and some are reaping no benefits at all because each card only covers certain drugs, seniors' advocates say. Some seniors say they didn't sign up because they would not even recover the annual card registration fee of up to $30.
Mark McClellan, chief of the government's Medicare program, said Wednesday that the program is "really a work in progress," and that steps are underway "to make sure all people save money." He said his agency is working with drug makers to offer discounts on more cards.
Stopgap measure
Congress authorized the cards as a stopgap measure to provide relief until 2006, when Medicare begins unprecedented prescription drug coverage for its more than 40 million elderly Americans. But the Kaiser Foundation said in a report Wednesday that, while 4 million of 15.4 million eligible seniors have enrolled, the number signing up voluntarily is probably under 1 million. The others were automatically enrolled by their health plans or state drug assistance programs.
While some seniors are saving money, many harshly criticize program rules limiting them to a single card, which they must hold for at least one year.
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more at link
Libby George is at [e-mail].

[Sugarbleus]

1. I would like to know, in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, if Kerry

can FIX this shit when he's elected! Kerry/Edwards are talking about wonderful things but can it happen? I voted for Clinton on the healthcare issue...look what happened. Nothing.

I'm voting for Kerry no matter what. Bush has to go before he BURNS THE WHOLE HOUSE DOWN. But I still worry whether Kerry or Edwards REALLY REALLY GET IT! Who are they talking to when they say opportunity and healthcare for everyone?

I know what Sharpton meant, what Jackson, Dean, and Kucinich meant....I just keep my fingers crossed that we will actually get some relief in these areas of domestic policy.

[The Zanti Regent]

2. The card came too late for my Mom and Dad...

They died bankrupted by drug costs. I guess it's more of that Republican Ayn Rand "Survival of the fittest" shit...

[Elginoid]

3. "the card" wouldn't have been much help...

they probably would have still been bankrupted.

[aquart]

4. The card wouldn't have helped.

My uncle, a veteran, has been taking money from my Mom for his and his wife's drugs. Now, the burden of everything is so bad that he's giving up his home and moving in with Mom. He's 86. His wife is 88. And they can't afford home. And he's WORKING!