Total of 5,100 Seniors Will Have Received $250 Checks Before the Year's End
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Charles B. Rangel announced that 2,720 more seniors in his Upper Manhattan District are expected to receive the $250 rebate checks, as a result of the health reform law that significantly closes the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap. This figure is in addition to the 2,380 seniors who have already received a combined sum of $595,000 to help pay their high drug costs. By the end of 2010, 5,100 seniors in the district will have benefited. The total amount of the assistance provided to seniors in the district will be $1.3 million.
“Prescription drugs cost many seniors thousands of dollars a year. This check is a down payment on reducing prescription drug costs for seniors and eventually closing the donut hole altogether,” Congressman said. “The benefits of health reform are abundantly clear for our seniors: it will strengthen Medicare and extend Medicare’s solvency by more than a decade.”
The benefits to seniors with high drug costs improve on a regular basis under the health reform law. The discount on brand-name drugs increases to 52.5% in 2013 and to 55% in 2015. The savings continue to grow until the donut hole is completely eliminated for both brand-name and generic drugs in 2019.
One of the immediate benefits of the health reform legislation signed into law in March, under Congressman Rangel's leadership in the Ways and Means Committee, is this assistance to seniors with high drug costs. This year, all seniors who have prescription drug expenses of $2,830 or more – and thereby enter the Medicare Part D ‘donut hole’ coverage gap – are receiving a one-time tax-free $250 rebate check. These checks are being mailed out every couple of weeks. It is estimated that by the end of the year about 4 million seniors will have received the check nationwide.
In addition, under health reform, Part D donut hole benefits will increase beginning in January 2011, when all seniors who hit the donut hole receive a 50% discount on brand-name drugs, saving the average senior entering the donut hole more than $500 annually. These discounts will save seniors in the district more than $2.7 million next year.
"The donut hole, created by Congressional Republicans, left thousands of seniors to choose between buying the prescriptions they need and putting food on the table." said the Congressman. "Threatening to repeal the reforms that close it is morally wrong."
This analysis is based upon data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. See Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, State and Local Distribution of Coverage Gap Rebate Checks (Oct. 2010).
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