Medicare Drug Card Plan Is Good Medicine, New Mexico Congressman Says
Las Cruces,
Apr 7, 2004 -
Congressman Steve Pearce, R-N.M. told a roomful of seniors Monday the cards to be issued this summer to give low-income seniors a break on prescription drugs costs will be the first step in promising new Medicare reforms passed last year.
Pearce, on a tour of the district while on congressional break, answered questions from seniors at a town hall meeting at Mountain View Regional Medical Center, many of whom were unsure what the reforms will mean to them, especially the prescription drug benefits plan.
Margorie Bredin, 77, and her husband John, 78, both expressed skepticism about some of the changes. They say the plan can only be affordable with mandatory participation.
"In order to get this paid for we're all going to be forced to participate.
Tell me I'm wrong," Margorie Bredin said.
Pearce said he doesn't "see any political will to force people into the system." "I'm sensitive to seniors who say 'I don't want to have to change. I like what I have.' " Pearce said. "If you already have a plan you're satisfied with, you don't have to make a change at all."
Under the new Medicare prescription drug plan, seniors can voluntarily participate in the plan, or make no changes and stay with their current coverage.
If they participate, they will pay a $35 monthly premium and a deductible of $250.
There will also be no coverage for seniors who incur between $2,250 and $5,100 in drug costs.
Pearce defended the gap, saying there are plenty of seniors who can afford drug costs and that providing complete coverage for all seniors would "bankrupt the system." "As you hear about the gap, understand it's there so as to not bankrupt the next generation," Pearce said, adding those of low income or in poverty will be completely covered.
The first part of that plan will come by the end of April, when low income seniors will be notified they can apply for $600 discount cards that can be used to defray the costs of prescription drugs.
Seniors with incomes of $12,123 for individuals and $16,362 for couples will be eligible for the cards.
While the reforms more tightly restrict the importation, or the reimportation from Canada or Mexico of large amounts of prescription drugs for resale, they do not prohibit individuals from going across the border to fill their prescriptions.
But Pearce cautioned an unknown number of those drugs (an estimated 20 percent) are counterfeit.
Pearce was one of numerous conservatives in Congress from rural states who were close to not voting for the Medicare bill last year, due to concerns about Medicare reimbursement to rural physicians not being anywhere close to sufficient.
Digging their feet in the sand paid off, Pearce said, as $1 billion has now been committed over the next four years for rural health care providers on the border, who he said are required by federal immigration law to treat legal and illegal immigrants, though they seldom receive compensation.
The reforms have also increased the amount of preventative medicine through physicals, pre-screening for cancer and covering insulin injections for diabetics, among many others.
"It is the beginning of the changes we need to make in Medicare, not the end of change," Pearce said.
--For more information about the prescription drug benefit program, call Steve Pearce's Las Cruces office at 522-2219 or call 1-800-MEDICARE.
--Rep. Pearce and Commerce Undersecretary Kathleen Cooper will be meeting with Doña Ana County business leaders Monday April 12 at IHOP at 2900 Telshor Blvd. to discuss job creation on the national and local level.
