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Medicare deadline
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| WM2 |
Seniors scramble to beat Medicare deadline
Lawmakers trade swipes as cutoff for drug benefit enrollment passes
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:14 a.m. ET May 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials say a last-day flurry of registration for the new Medicare drug benefit could lead to 90 percent of elderly Americans having insurance coverage for their medicine.
“We’ve seen a real surge,” said Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “The deadline is making a difference.”
McClellan said about 40,000 to 50,000 people were on the agency’s Web site — www.medicare.gov — at any given moment Monday. Operators at 1-800-Medicare were also experiencing a rush of calls, and most callers were having to wait a few minutes to reach an operator.
The nation’s 43 million Medicare beneficiaries had until midnight Monday to enroll in the new benefit without penalty. About 10 million had done so since Jan. 1. Many more had prescription drug coverage before then, and will continue to have coverage through their former employer, through other government programs or because they were automatically enrolled. That leaves about 6 million people without coverage by administration estimates. Democratic lawmakers say it’s closer to 9 million.
First lady Laura Bush and top administration officials attended an afternoon registration drive at a local church, while critics of the program met at a pharmacy near the Capitol and urged the administration to extend the midnight deadline and waive a financial penalty for late enrollees.
Mrs. Bush met with volunteers and some last-minute enrollees. She told people with little need for medicine now to still consider signing up for a private insurance plan, warning, “As you age, it’s likely you’ll add medications to your health care.”
Criticism from Democrats
Democratic lawmakers seized on comments from a leading Republican lawmaker, Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, who said she would introduce legislation to help people who miss the deadline. She said she would try to eliminate the penalty that comes with late enrollment.
For each month of delay, a beneficiary would have to pay an additional 1 percent of the national average premium. So, a person who waits seven months will pay 7 percent of the national average premium — or about an extra $2.50 per month.
“After months of ignoring the pressing needs of seniors, Republicans are running for political cover by claiming they want to waive the penalty they imposed,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Waiving the penalty does not do enough.”
Johnson in turn took a swipe at Democrats, saying she believes the program has been quite successful, and that enrollment might have been closer to 100 percent “if the Democrats had put the welfare of our seniors ahead of their own political ambition.”
While the enrollment deadline was midnight Monday, the agency was leaving some margin for error. For example, McClellan also said that people who could not reach an operator but left a message would be contacted in coming days and given a chance to enroll without penalty.
The administration also notes that, of the 6 million people they believe are still without coverage, about half will qualify for extra help in paying for their medicine. They are exempt from the enrollment deadline and penalty once they qualify for the extra subsidy.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2006 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12805662/
I'm just curious since I haven't really heard about any deadlines until reading this today, but did the government actually make any efforts at annoucing this, or am I correct in saying that I've never heard anything about it and neither did most of the people that probably didn't sign up. |
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| Boomer187 |
| quote: | Originally posted by WM2
I'm just curious since I haven't really heard about any deadlines until reading this today, but did the government actually make any efforts at annoucing this, or am I correct in saying that I've never heard anything about it and neither did most of the people that probably didn't sign up. |
health professionals and those that work with people that can actually apply for this let people know. I don't think you apply for it so I don't think anyone actually would mention it to you.
I work with lots of older adults and they were well aware of it. |
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| WM2 |
| It doesn't apply to me, so perhaps that is why I didn't hear about it till today. Still, 6-9 million(obviously depending upon which party you would rather believe) is a lot of people. you would think there wouldn't be any question that the deadline needed to be extended if there were still that many that might qualify that hadn't applied. |
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| Lepanto |
| Goddamn American healthcare system. If we make illegal aliens pay taxes then perhaps we can have universal healthcare like every other western country. |
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| WM2 |
Our healthcare system is pretty screwy. Isn't this the same plan that was promised to cut cost, but ended up costing more than the old plan just to establish?
Anyway, the taxes thing is kind of irrelevant. Most illegals do pay taxes they just aren't in the form of income taxes. Besides, even if they were paying income taxes, the majority are making such a small wage they would qualify to get most of what they paid back in tax returns. |
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| Lepanto |
| quote: | Originally posted by WM2
Our healthcare system is pretty screwy. Isn't this the same plan that was promised to cut cost, but ended up costing more than the old plan just to establish?
Anyway, the taxes thing is kind of irrelevant. Most illegals do pay taxes they just aren't in the form of income taxes. Besides, even if they were paying income taxes, the majority are making such a small wage they would qualify to get most of what they paid back in tax returns. |
they obviously would make more and pay real taxes. the taxes you think they pay are tiny and mostly no one could see a hike revenue from the illegals.
this plan sucked. they pretty much realized that the government cannot afford to cover all these people so they are forced to make co-payments. and by God lemme tell you as a son of a pharmacist. THEY DO NOT PAY, especially in my mom's place or any other pharmacy around them because they are all private and the old farts say like " if you don't pay my co-payment we're going to another pharmacy" first week the plan came out, their pharmacy lost 8 thousand dollars. |
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| ResonantDrag |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lepanto
they obviously would make more and pay real taxes. the taxes you think they pay are tiny and mostly no one could see a hike revenue from the illegals.
this plan sucked. they pretty much realized that the government cannot afford to cover all these people so they are forced to make co-payments. and by God lemme tell you as a son of a pharmacist. THEY DO NOT PAY, especially in my mom's place or any other pharmacy around them because they are all private and the old farts say like " if you don't pay my co-payment we're going to another pharmacy" first week the plan came out, their pharmacy lost 8 thousand dollars. |
the government's paying 3/4 of the per-participant premium for this insurance. if there wasn't a co-pay, how many drugs would you get?
this system is going to fall apart come november when the companys change their plans for '07. as of now the only seniors that applied are the one's that can save ie. the sick ones. with no health questions, most healthy seniors weren't scared by the threat of penalty (1% a month) and didn't enroll.
luckly for the republicans, nothing should unravel until after mid-terms. then we'll see a lot of companies drop this program and the remaining increase premiums to close to double the intro-enrollment amount.
combine this with the senior financial losses do to enrollment with the bush-friendly medicare advantage companies (which can still enroll seniors until June 30th), we may actually see an all new low for job approval. |
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| Lepanto |
| quote: | Originally posted by ResonantDrag
the government's paying 3/4 of the per-participant premium for this insurance. if there wasn't a co-pay, how many drugs would you get?
this system is going to fall apart come november when the companys change their plans for '07. as of now the only seniors that applied are the one's that can save ie. the sick ones. with no health questions, most healthy seniors weren't scared by the threat of penalty (1% a month) and didn't enroll.
luckly for the republicans, nothing should unravel until after mid-terms. then we'll see a lot of companies drop this program and the remaining increase premiums to close to double the intro-enrollment amount.
combine this with the senior financial losses do to enrollment with the bush-friendly medicare advantage companies (which can still enroll seniors until June 30th), we may actually see an all new low for job approval. |
im so confused. i just got off work and am totally burnt. i'll make sense of this later :p |
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