LAT: Only 8% of Eligible Seniors Approved for Medicare Drug Program

Only 8% of Eligible Seniors Approved for Medicare Drug Program
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON -- Despite a massive outreach campaign, only 661,000 of an estimated 4.6 million low-income seniors have been approved for financial assistance under the new Medicare prescription benefit, the Social Security Administration said today.

That represents just 14% of the number of beneficiaries that the government had estimated would be approved for extra help, worth $4,000 a year on average. The pool of those potentially eligible is even larger, an estimated 8 million.

The disappointing figures are another indication that seniors are ambivalent about the new program, which will offer outpatient prescription coverage through private plans starting Jan. 1. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only 50% of low-income seniors realized they could be eligible for assistance.

"It suggests this program is far too complicated and confusing, when you can't even give it away," said Robert Laszewski, a healthcare industry consultant. "It's terrible that people who have a right to assistance with their drug coverage and they don't know about it, even after months of extraordinary publicity."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-120205medicare_lat,0,1569709.story?coll=la-home-headlines

of those who need it would sign up.

It is the most ridiculous piece of crap I have ever seen.

(Rant off)

Seriously though, it is a stinking pile of horse crap.

Is that not true?

I both have signed up with AARP's plan which is the cheapest we could find in our state (VA). If you don't sign up by May 15, 2006, you will be penalized 1% per month (meaning that when you do sign up your premiums will be whatever per centage higher) for each month beyond the sign up period. These plans are administered by insurance companies in each state and the premiums can be deducted from your Social Security check. You must be on Medicare Parts A and B and 65 years old to get Medicare Part D (the prescription drug plan). My docotor seems to think it's going to be great! I'm not so sure that it will be, but it will be less expensive than the insurance that I currently have that has prescription drug coverage. I will also be getting Medicare Part C, which is commonly called the Medigap policy which covers charges not covered by A and B.

Wonder how long it will be before we get to Medicare Part Z?

On edit: My husband just corrected me...if one is on Medicaid and does not sign up for a plan, then Medicaid will sign one up for it. But if you're a paying person, you have choices which are not so easy to figure out. It takes time and patience and most seniors don't have access to the information, can't use a computer to get info, can't understand the plans, etc.

If you get SSDI, after two years, you get Medicare. I received my card. My private insurance company...and I am lucky enough to be covered by a former employer and not have to pay for it...insists that I take Part B. Part B is the one that you have to pay the premium to get.

If you do not take Part B when it is offered, you are penalized in later years if you don't get it when first offered. (Sorry about the syntax of that sentence).

However, my drug prescription plan is MUCH better than ANY of the plans that Bushco came up with. My insurance company does not want me to get any of the prescription plans.

For most people who are on SSDI and have to get innumerable prescriptions, they are going to be lucky if the drugs that they need are covered. However, some of those people also get Medicaid, so they are doing all right.

I wouldn't be if I relied on one of those Medicare prescription drug plans. I have MS and, for example, one of my drugs that I have to inject on a daily basis costs over $1000 per month. No, I don't pay that as my copay is $10 per month (going up after the first of the year, but still going to be a bargain at $20 per month). My insurance company, through the prescription plan, covers the drug. I don't think that this drug, one of 4 possible MS injectable drugs, is covered by the Medicare prescription plans. The only one that I believe is covered is the drug that can be given in the doctor's office. So, rather than injecting oneself, one can pay the doctor for a visit...or Medicare can...and everyone can complain about higher drug and medical costs. All of which is unnecessary.

Oh, well.

Those whose children are trying to help their parents are also having problems with this.

x(

People are not stupid.

Enroll in this plan and they may stop giving you food stamps. Enroll in this plan and they will take more of your already piddly Social Security check.

These people NEVER stop. I was tempted to say to them, "How about if I just give you the whole fuckin check? That IS after all what you really want isn't it?"

I did not say anything to them. I just hung up the phone and told them not to ever call again regarding this B.S. plan that causes more problems than it is worth. If I need a RX filled, I'll go to Costco.

And oh yeah, what a WASTE of money spent shilling a plan that no one with a brain wants.

Stupid? HELL NO. Sick of the shit and all of the lies that goes with the stink is more like it!!! :grr:

Why would you let a private company decide what medicines you're allowed to take?

I wonder if they put it together yet. Probably not....

Its way stupid!!!

This program is horribly confusing, but someone better get the message out that seniors will lose benefits for every month that they don't sign up after a due date that occurs sometime next year. Of course, it may be that a lot of people haven't signed up because they're still trying to figure out how it works, and know that they have until that 2006 deadline to decide.

It is impossible to make a choice assuming you can decipher the stupid mess. This is the biggest bad joke ever played on American seniors and the disabled.

give them assistance. There is a hook in that bait somewhere. That's how I feel any way. Nothing repukes do is for the benefit if the average person. It is all for the corporations. You can't serve two masters with a republican drug plan.

Which pays for drugs! ALL OF THEM. So what's to sign up for?


Who are they talking about? the 600 /mo people? the 1200/mo people? the 1600/mo people?


Total doublespeak, total disaster.


Tear it up, start over... A NON-STARTER! the AMERICAN PEOPLE REJECT THIS CRAP!

The people who would have received their drugs under medicaid are known as "dual-eligibles" and Medicare D will be their coverage.
Typically, the state they are in works with the feds to make sure that there is a plan adjusted to somehow meet the needs of low income people.
In many cases, they are less than perfect just as Part D.

so she can't figure this stuff out... I have to make sure she gets and takes the 18 meds she needs everyday!


:(


im so scared

...some things should not have a FUCKING PROFIT MOTIVE to them....:mad:

Just wait till people hit the $2,250 initial limit and Medicare D stops paying until they hit $3,600 in out of pocket costs.

You'll see an uproar far bigger than the 1989 demonstrations that repealed Catastrophic Care (Medicare "C"). And I bet a lot of that anger will hit AARP!

look at all the extra money the gov will rake in. It's a shell game!