The States Step In As Medicare Falters
Seniors Being Turned Away, Overcharged Under New Prescription Drug Program
The Washington Post, January 14th, 2006
Two
weeks into the new Medicare prescription drug program, many of the
nation's sickest and poorest elderly and disabled people are being
turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting more than a dozen
states to declare health emergencies and pay for their life-saving
medicines.
Computer glitches, overloaded telephone lines and
poorly trained pharmacists are being blamed for mix-ups that have
resulted in the worst of unintended consequences: As many as 6.4
million low-income seniors, who until Dec. 31 received their
medications free, suddenly find themselves navigating an insurance maze
of large deductibles, co-payments and outright denial of coverage.
Yesterday, Ohio and Wisconsin announced that they will cover the
drug costs of low-income seniors who would otherwise go without,
joining every state in New England as well as California, Illinois,
Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and New
Jersey.
"This new prescription drug plan was supposed to be a
voluntary program to help people who didn't have coverage," said Jeanne
Finberg, a lawyer for the National Senior Citizens Law Center. "All
this is doing is harming the people who had coverage -- America's most
vulnerable citizens."
Read more...