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Medicare Drug Plan Update Today Could Get Heated
Jan. 17, 2006 – At 11:30 a.m. (EST) today, Health
and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services Dr. Mark B. McClellan will conduct a telephone news
conference to update reporters on the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan,
which has been besieged with problems that most blame on the complicated
and confusing structure of the program.
Enrollment began on Nov. 15, 2005, and on Dec. 22,
Leavitt announced that more than 21 million senior
citizens and people with disabilities would be onboard by Jan. 1, 2006
for Medicare prescription drug coverage. Leavitt said the number includes more than one
million Americans who signed up for the new stand-alone coverage in the
first 28 days it was offered. The vast majority – about 20 million –
were automatic enrollees. Another 500,000 voluntary enrollments are
expected by the end of January.
The reality that many senior citizen advocates
pointed out after this statement is that the real news was that only
about one million senior citizens had voluntarily joined the new
program. The other 20 million were automatic enrollees, many retirees in
private company or union plans being subsidized by Medicare to continue
providing drug coverage.
The other major problem has been the inability of
many seniors, in particular the very low-income elderly, to get their
drugs paid for by the new program.
Approximately 20 states have taken action to
provide drugs to the senior citizens being turned away because they do
not seem to be covered by a drug plan.
Most of these states expect the federal government
to reimburse them for coming to the rescue of the seniors.
In the announcement on Dec. 22, about initial
enrollment in the drug program, Leavitt promised a monthly update on the
progress.
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