Seniors still confused by Medicare Part D

By Betty Ahrens, Iowa City | Monday, August 14, 2006

In the July 31 article, “Drug plan gap may affect fall elections,” it was reported that the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 8 in 10 enrolled in Medicare Part D were “satisfied.” What isn’t reported in that article was that the data now shows that more than half of seniors cannot even say that they are saving money with this drug benefit, notwithstanding that it is costing taxpayers more than $700 billion over the next 10 years.

Also, among seniors who have used their drug plans, those in fair or poor health were significantly more likely to report experiencing major problems with their plan (27 percent) than seniors in excellent or very good health (12 percent). More problems were also experienced by seniors who take six or more prescriptions each day as well as for seniors with incomes of less than $20,000 annually.

Given the massive cost of this program, is not acceptable for half of seniors to still be experiencing hardship. Congress needs to fix the problems with Medicare Part D so that it works for all enrollees.

Betty Ahrens

Iowa City