Posted on 05/07/2006 4:16:44 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) ELLETTSVILLE, Ind. With time running out to enroll in the federal government's new prescription drug benefit, advocates for the elderly say they are being inundated with phone calls and last-minute visits from seniors.
"The last two weeks have been crazy," said Jason Carnes, the center developer for the Area 10 Agency on Aging, where calls and visits have been running about twice the normal number.
Last week, President Bush and other administration officials urged an estimated 6 million to 7 million Medicare beneficiaries still without prescription drug coverage to enroll by May 15.
Under the program, 43 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries can enroll in a private plan that will subsidize the cost of their medicine. The savings vary depending upon one's prescription drug needs, income and the plan chosen.
Medicare officials claim the average enrollee will save about $1,100 a year.
In Indiana, many seniors say they have been deluged by mail from insurance companies promoting their prescription plans. Indiana alone has 43 such plans.
"It was confusing and overwhelming for me," said Sally Rudy, 74, of Fort Wayne.
She and her housemate, Eunice Conrad, 76, said they put off making a decision on the prescription plans because they take only a handful of medications.
Still, to be safe, both Conrad and Rudy enrolled in plans last week. Neither expects to save a lot of money in the near future.
Donna Cusick, development coordinator for the Allen County Council on Aging, said she has spoken to "well over 1,000" people either face-to-face or on the phone about the plans.
Some seniors are now saving hundreds of dollars a month on medications, while others, Cusick said, are paying more into the plan than they are getting out -- the necessary reality of any viable insurance plan.
On the whole, Cusick said the plans' early implementation problems have given way to a smoother system. The problems included computer glitches that kept some consumers from accessing their new benefits, prescription plan cards that didn't get sent and problems selecting plans.
"It was just chaos the first few weeks (in January)," she said.
Carnes, with the Ellettsville Agency on Aging, feels that many of the 11th-hour pleas for help the group has seen in the past week are coming from people who believed the May 15 deadline would be extended -- something Rep. Steve Buyer and other legislators had mentioned was possible.
"There are still rumors the deadline will be pushed back, but it now looks like that's not going to happen," Carnes said. "People don't want to pay the late enrollment fee penalty."
The penalty fee would add at least 1 percent of the national average monthly drug premium to a recipient's premium for every month they could have enrolled but did not.
Recipients would continue paying the penalty fee -- which increases each year along with the average premium -- for as long as they have Medicare drug coverage.
James Jackson, a 67-year-old Bloomington man who takes prescription inhalants for emphysema, said he was experiencing some deadline anxiety before making several calls to Carnes last week.
On Friday, thanks to Carnes' counsel, Jackson signed up for a Humana plan in which he will pay only a $12 monthly premium.
I don't know what they've been waiting for. I've been enrolled since January 1st and it's saving me money.
I don't see too much appreciation of this BENEFIT.
Why is it most folks gripe about how much trouble it is to get free money.
I did lots of research on the Internet and found Humana to be the best program for my family, and also for several of my friends, based on the medications we/they take.
You and my husband. I don't take any Rx's (so far) but I still signed up for Humana's $6.95 a month premium because I don't want to get hit with the penalty if at anytime I do need Rx's.
bookmark
Come on folks. Get that money from your Grandkids!
No conservative could propose and support such a program, and we're paying for its passage through all these earmarks the current GOP leadership is allowing. This runaway pork is what the taxpayers have to pay pass this ludicrous package, ie "Buy off the Opposition".
The US Government...home of the Red, White and Blue Screw.
The real cost/benefit of the program won't be evident for a couple of years. The premise is that if seniors get the medication they need, they'll make less use of emergency medical services, and cost the tax payers less in the long run.
But on a practical side, for political reasons, this may be a boon for Republicans, as the Democrats will be continuing their campaign to paint the program as a failure, and they're already promising to roll it back... Which ought to bring out the largest voting bloc in the country against them.
I waited until yesterday since I didn't want to have to pay the premium for their useless socialist program and the only reason to sign up at all is their draconian penalty.
Not only pure socialism but unconstitutional and should be eliminated along with SS, Medicare, and all other social programs.
""Not only pure socialism but unconstitutional and should be eliminated along with SS, Medicare, and all other social programs.""
those programs are so popular that I am sure congress would pass and the states ratify a constitutional amendment permitting those programs...whoopie then judges can set the budgets
What is the advantage if you already have prescription coverage under your health care plan? With my employer paid retiree Blue Cross plan, the copay is only $5.
"I still signed up for Humana's $6.95 a month premium because I don't want to get hit with the penalty if at anytime I do need Rx's."
I wonder why the difference, I signed both of us up for the same thing and it was $5.41.
As far as i'm concerned government shouldn't pay for anyones existance, either pay your own way in this world or quit taking up space on this planet.
while i dont entirely disagree, it puts you somehwere to the right of 96% of the american people
while i dont entirely disagree, it puts you somehwere to the right of 96% of the american people and i am not interested in ideas that wil lhave 96% rejection...i am interested in what can get done in reality over a period of time, such as the fair tax or abolishing the IRS
The thing about pyramid schemes is the earlier you get in, the more you benefit.
I agree, but if they are giving I will take it. Survival of the fittest.
Acording to my agent, unless one is already paying 800.00 a year in prescriptions, no plan is of any benefit. Personally, if I was taking that much medicine, I just might off myself. and do everyone a favor.
I picked Humana as the best alternative for my wife. Then I read that Humana made a big grab for this market for future inclusion of seniors in total management.
If this makes drugs competitive and people more free to choose, that much is good.
Our presecription costs were running away and Medicare D is keeping things at last year's level, as far as I can tell.
Difficult to understand the program? I have health insurance and other training and I still find the whole system opaque.
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