US prescription drug aid for the elderly
US prescription drug aid for the elderly
Keywords: Elder care, USA
One of the promises made by George Bush prior to his election as American President was a reform of Medicare so that the elderly would have access to prescription drugs and modern medicine and have more control over their own health care. He said that Medicare was currently headed toward financial collapse, and its "one-size-fits-all" benefits package was outdated,covering neither prescription drugs nor other routine services such as annual physicals, vision tests and hearing aids. He said he would reform Medicare by providing the elderly with a prescription drug benefit as well as the ability to choose their own modern, comprehensive health plan. The proposal would cover all prescription drugs and the full cost of Medicare premiums for the elderly on low incomes, and at least part of the premium cost and the cost of catastrophic Medicare costs for all the elderly.
During his campaign, Bush proposed expanding or creating state drug assistance programs as a way to get immediate relief to the low-income elderly,whilst giving Congress time to create and enact a comprehensive Medicare reform plan. However, getting Medicare drug coverage through Congress will probably be difficult.
Added to this, Families USA, a national non-profit, non-partisan organisation dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health and long-term care for all Americans, announced in January that the administration's prescription drug proposal would not reach many of the people it is intended to help
Ron Pollack, Families USA's executive director, said:
While we are heartened that President Bush is willing to extend prescription drug coverage for all seniors, the structure of his interim proposal will make it harder, not easier, to reach that goal. The "Immediate Helping Hand"proposal creates a time-limited structure that would be torn down after four years.
Additionally, based on past experience, it is unlikely this interim proposal will reach even the limited target population of low-income seniors.
Families USA says that its analysis shows a number of other flaws in the proposal:
Because of its time-limited nature, it does not create a foundation for building toward the goal of universal coverage.
The block grant will enable states that already have drug programs to move money they are spending for prescription drug coverage to other purposes. Instead of increasing drug coverage and reaching more people, the federal government would therefore be providing new money without providing new assistance.
The "Immediate Helping Hand" would not be immediate. Only about half the states currently have prescription drug assistance programs in place and it would take months, even years, to get programs up and running in the rest of the states.
Experience has demonstrated that existing state pharmaceutical programs reach less than one-fourth of the eligible seniors they are supposed to help.
According to Ron Pollack:
The best way to help low-income seniors is through drug coverage for all seniors and people with disabilities through the Medicare program.
For more information, see the Families USA Web site at http://www.familiesusa.org/MediaAdvisory
