GOVERNMENT'S DRUG PLAN FLAWED

A LETTER FROM JUDITH STEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR MEDICARE ADVOCACY

This letter appeared in the June 11th, 2003 Edition of The Hartford Courant, pg. A16

Once again the latest proposal for a Medicare drug benefit seeks to lure people out of the traditional Medicare program and into private insurance plans to obtain prescription drug coverage.

This is a bad deal for Medicare beneficiaries.  Private plans don't offer a secure means of insuring older people.  That's why Medicare was enacted in 1965.  The failure of the Medicare managed-care experiment demonstrates that private plans will increase premiums, decrease benefits, and leave the Medicare population unprotected.

The move to privatize Medicare was intended to save the program money while still meeting patient needs.  But, as former Medicare administrator Bruce Vladeck says, to date it has not saved the program a nickel.  Meanwhile, the traditional Medicare program continues to offer a secure set of benefits to people throughout the country at administrative costs well below those of private plans.

Luring elders into private health plans to obtain drug coverage violates the first rule of medicine: Do no harm.

Congress and the president should produce a prescription drug benefit within the traditional program with reasonable premiums and reliable coverage that all beneficiaries can count on.

Judith A. Stein
Executive Director
Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.

© Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. 05/05/08