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US: New Medicare plan triggers health crisis for thousands
The debut of the new Medicare drug plan has been a disaster for tens of thousands of seniors and other eligible participants. Starting from the first week of its implementation on January 1, the program was so riddled by confusion and incompetence that more than two dozen states were forced to take emergency action to pay for prescription drugs that people were not able to obtain by using the plan. Low-income beneficiaries were often overcharged or arrived at pharmacies to discover their old drug benefits had been cancelled, but were not listed as eligible for the new program.
“It’s a major public health crisis. People are trying to get their drugs, and they can’t get them,” Jeanne Finberg of the National Senior Citizen Law Center (NSCLC) told USA Today.
The drug plan, Medicare Part D, calls for private insurance companies under contract from Medicare to provide drug benefits for Medicare recipients. A quarter of the 24 million people now enrolled in the plan are “dual eligibles,” that is, people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a federal entitlement program that provides health insurance for the elderly and those with certain disabilities, while Medicaid is a state-administered, federal health care program for low-income individuals and families.
These dual participants, who were automatically and randomly enrolled into private drug plans offered under the Medicare program, generally constitute the poorest and the frailest of health. According to Time magazine, more than 70 percent of these people earn less than $10,000 a year.
For those eligibles who were not automatically enrolled, the enrollment process was complicated by the multitude of plans tendered by various commercial insurance carriers. These numbered between 27 and 300, depending on where the beneficiary lived, with each plan offering access to a specific list of drugs and pharmacies. For example, Alaska, with only 53,000 eligible recipients, has almost 30 plans.
More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/medi-j26.shtml
The drug plan, Medicare Part D, calls for private insurance companies under contract from Medicare to provide drug benefits for Medicare recipients. A quarter of the 24 million people now enrolled in the plan are “dual eligibles,” that is, people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a federal entitlement program that provides health insurance for the elderly and those with certain disabilities, while Medicaid is a state-administered, federal health care program for low-income individuals and families.
These dual participants, who were automatically and randomly enrolled into private drug plans offered under the Medicare program, generally constitute the poorest and the frailest of health. According to Time magazine, more than 70 percent of these people earn less than $10,000 a year.
For those eligibles who were not automatically enrolled, the enrollment process was complicated by the multitude of plans tendered by various commercial insurance carriers. These numbered between 27 and 300, depending on where the beneficiary lived, with each plan offering access to a specific list of drugs and pharmacies. For example, Alaska, with only 53,000 eligible recipients, has almost 30 plans.
More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/medi-j26.shtml
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