LOW-INCOME NON-APPLICANTS TO GET MEDICARE DRUG CARD IN MAIL

After struggling for months to get Medicare beneficiaries to sign up for drug discount cards, the Bush administration said on Wednesday September 22 nd that it would simply send the cards to 1.8 million people with low incomes who are eligible but have not applied.

Democrats in Congress and advocates for low-income people have been urging the government to take such steps since April.

By using the cards, Medicare beneficiaries can cut about 20 percent off retail drug prices. In addition, low-income people with no other source of drug coverage can get up to $1,200 in federal aid.

President Bush has repeatedly cited the discount cards as evidence of his commitment to help older people with drug costs. The new cards will arrive in the mail in the next few weeks. They can be used starting Nov. 1, one day before Election Day.

Seventeen companies, including Aetna, Medco and the UnitedHealth Group, agreed to work with the government in issuing discount cards to low-income people. Beneficiaries will be assigned at random to one of the companies. To get the $1,200, they will have to call a toll-free telephone number and answer two questions to confirm their eligibility.

They will have to say whether they have insurance covering their drug costs and whether their incomes are more or less than a specified amount ($12,569 a year for an individual, $16,862 for a couple).

Federal officials said Medicare beneficiaries must sign up by Dec. 31 to obtain the full $1,200 credit. Those who delay signing up until 2005 will lose half of the credit.

Of the 4.4 million people who have received cards this year, 1.1 million have low incomes and qualify for the credit. The administration had predicted that 4.7 million low-income people would be receiving such credits by the end of this year

-Abridged from “ Low-Income Non-Applicants to Get Medicare Drug Cards”, The New York Times by Robert Pear, Sept. 22, 2004.

09/2004