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Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Robert C. Byrd, both D-W.Va., say senior citizens will be
hurt by the Medicare bill that passed the Senate early morning Thursday.
Byrd said we are going back to a pre-Medicare system, with insurance being
unaffordable for most working people and prescription drugs skyrocketing.
Opponents to the Republican bill say it is a "foot in the door" to Medicare being
turned over to private insurance companies. Monthly health insurance is now
costing $700 to $1000 a month in the private sector, with family coverage hitting
$16,000-$18,000 a year by 2007-08.
The devilsih detail is in the fine print.
If seniors own a car, life insurance or a burial plot that add up to $10,000 in value,
they will be considered too wealthy to get the full low-income pharmaceutical
benefits.
"Instead of giving seniors the benefit they want, need and expect," Rockefeller said,
"this legislation lacks a guaranteed Medicare benefit, has a large gap in coverage,
premiums that vary from region to region, and emphasizes private insurers over
seniors," said Rockefeller.
Rockefeller says the 43,000 senior citizens in West Virginia soon will have a harder
time getting prescription medicines.
"Too many seniors and disabled persons in this country, especially those living on
fixed incomes, are forced to choose each month between paying for food and
shelter, or buying the essential medicines that their doctors have prescribed," Byrd
said.
The devilsih detail is in the fine print:
There will be no nationwide premium for insurance for prescription drugs.
Costs will vary from region to region, from state to state.
Rockefeller said the "sky's the limit on how high it can be, because the private
insurers decide."
Since the new legislation relies on private insurers, traditional Medicare will provide
benefits only when private insurers decline to serve a particular area.
Rockefeller said this means some seniors "could have to switch plans every year, be
forced to leave the doctors they trust, and have to pay a new premium, deductible
and co-pay."
THE GAP: Coverage for pharmaceuticals will stop after $4,500 is spent, until $5,800
is reached. That means seniors will have to pay that $1,300 out of their pockets.
Low-income seniors, which include 43,000 West Virginians eligible for Medicaid, will
be barred from enrolling in the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit program.
"But since providing a drug benefit under Medicaid is optional, these seniors have no
assurance that they will have any prescription-drug coverage at all," according to
Rockefeller.
"My constituents and others around the nation are reeling from public programs that
have been turned over to the so-called free market," Byrd said in a speech he
delivered.
"The Medicare program was originally created because the private sector did not
offer affordable and reliable health insurance to the elderly and the disabled. Health
care has certainly changed in the past 38 years," said Byrd.
"But what has not changed is the fact that the private market does not want to
insure people who are old or disabled or likely to need care." Byrd says the
"insurance formula" must raise rates to make money on people they not want to
insure.
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