| Jan Drew 2006-10-20, 4:30 pm |
| http://www.newstarget.com/z020803.html
NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published October 18 2006
Medicare drug plan was bait-and-switch scheme; plan prices to skyrocket next
year
(NewsTarget) The least expensive Medicare drug insurance policies under cost
elderly and disabled Americans 44 percent more in 2007, based on recent rate
quotes published by the government.
Monthly costs for the cheapest Medicare plans will rise from $9.46 to $13.58
according to information compiled and released by Medicare. But that's not
all; Humana Inc. -- the largest provider of low-cost drug plans -- has
raised prices 500 percent in some cases, and Medicare itself reduced its
monthly subsidy by 15 percent to $80 per person.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said that "Many people are
going to feel that they are victims of a bait-and-switch tactic...there's no
question that it will be an extraordinary disappointment."
Democratic Representative Henry Waxman of California added that "The
department's numbers appear to be wrong, and they disguise significant
increase in premiums for Medicare drug plans . the release of erroneous
information about the cost of premiums -- whether deliberate or not -- is a
disservice to millions of seniors."
Although 2007 estimates for Medicare plans are not being backed down by
Medicare officials, the new plans for 2007 include costs of stand-alone drug
plans and programs where people sign up with insurance companies for
administration of all of their benefits, according to Mark McClellan, the
administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a
response letter to Representative Waxman.
"The Medicare drug plan was never really about saving money for senior
citizens," explains Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and critic of
drug company profiteering. "It was a politically-motivated scheme to ensure
the continued profits of pharmaceutical companies by locking in drug
customers while making it illegal for the federal government to negotiate
volume discounts. It should have been called the Big Pharma profit
preservation plan."
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