Copyright 2002 The Tribune Co. Publishes The Tampa Tribune The Tampa Tribune
April 23, 2002, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: BAYLIFE, Pg. 3
LENGTH:
597 words
HEADLINE: What's Ahead For Medicare
Drug Benefits?
BYLINE: LINDSAY PETERSON,
lpeterson@tampatrib.com
BODY: Expect
a lot of talk about Congress passing a Medicare prescription
drug benefit this year. Don't expect much action.
That was the consensus of experts who spoke earlier this month at the
American Society on Aging/ National Council on Aging conference in Denver.
No one disagrees that seniors need help. The Congressional
Budget Office estimates people on Medicare will spend nearly $1.8 trillion of
their own money on medication in the next decade.
But
officials can't agree how to help. There's an ideological debate swirling about
whether prescriptions should be handled as a traditional Medicare benefit,
managed by the government, our through private insurance.
Most seniors don't care about this as long as they're covered,
according to Howard Bedlin of the National Council on Aging.
The big obstacle is money.
Falling Short
President Bush has proposed spending $190 billion over 10
years on Medicare changes. The most generous congressional proposal would spend
more than twice as much, yet the coverage would still be spotty, Bedlin said.
His NCOA designed a mock program costing about $500
billion over 10 years and presented it to a group of seniors for their opinions.
Even at that funding level, only one-third said they would buy it; out-of-pocket
premium and deductible costs were too high.
Guess what
it would cost to set up a program that would provide drug benefits comparable to
what House and Senate members get? About $800 billion over the 10 years.
"Congress is simply not putting up the money," Bedlin said - even though the
government could find it, in his view, by looking no further than promised
federal tax cuts.
Addressing Demand
It's a question of priorities, agreed Jeanette Takamura, former head of
the U.S. Administration on Aging, now a professor at California State University
in Los Angeles.
"Congress will say, "We know what you
want, but look at the world. We've got to make sure we win this war.' But those
two issues are not exclusive," she said at the conference. "People must stand up
and say, "We must have prescription drugs as a benefit.' "
The emerging drug card programs and the minimal Bush proposal, aimed at
helping the poor, might even do more harm than good, said Donna Yee, an expert
on aging with the Asian Community Center in California.
"All these little proposals, these little programs, erode any
groundswell for change," she said. "People running for office will say, "Look
what we've done.' And the [voters] will think they've accomplished something.
... But it's not enough."
Larry Polivka, of the Florida
Policy Exchange Center on Aging at the University of South Florida, on the panel
with Yee and Takamura, disagreed. People aren't fooled by meager programs, he
said, and demand for a comprehensive prescription drug benefit is building.
In the meantime, older people with no drug coverage will
have to get by on what's available.
Pfizer Inc. has a
program for low-income seniors; call 1-800-717-6005. So does Eli Lilly and Co.,
1-877-795-4559, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, 1-866-974-2273.
Seven drug companies, including Abbott Laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline, recently announced a new discount program called
Together Rx. For information, call 1-800-865-7211.
The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation helps people find drug discounts at
www.rxassist.orgonline. Another helpful site is www.needymeds.com
For more advice, try SHINE, Serving Health Insurance Needs
of Seniors, at 1-800-963-5337. Ask for its "prescription assistance" fact
sheet.
Document 265 of 532. 