SPECIAL SECTION: Medicare D and Other Drug Coverage Updates

REPORT: MANY POOR WITHOUT MEDICARE DRUG COVERAGE

One year after the start of Medicare drug benefit, one-third of older adults living in poverty still had no coverage for prescription drugs according to an August 21 Kaiser Family Foundation report. The report also found over half of low-income people with Medicare did not know they can receive Extra Help (also known as the Low Income Subsidy), a program providing assistance with drug plan premiums and co-payments.

The Part D Progress Report, released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in conjunction with the Commonwealth Fund and the Tufts-New England Medical Center, surveyed 16,072 older adults between October and December 2006 on their enrollment in Part D prescription drug coverage plans.

The good news is that the report revealed that the total percentage of older adults without drug coverage fell from 33 percent in 2005 to 8 percent in 2006. Unfortunately, thirty-four percent of those at or below the Federal Poverty Line (FPL), or those who take in less than $850 per month, remain without any prescription drug coverage.

Awareness of the Extra Help program remains low. Fifty-three percent of individuals at or below the FPL were unaware of the program. In addition, half of all older adults with incomes at or below 150 percent of the FPL enrolled in a Part D plan are not receiving Extra Help.

-Adapted from: “Report: Many Poor Without Medicare Drug Coverage” in Medicare Watch, a biweekly electronic newsletter of the Medicare Rights Center, Vol. 10, No. 18: September 4, 2007. p

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