We are from the government and want to help with the high price of prescription drugs

Here is only part of the excellent post on the blog As Time Goes By written by a retired television reporter/producer who "spent a decade at The Barbara Walters Specials and 20/20 on ABC Television, followed by a variety of shows such as short-lived talkfests for John Tesch and Whoopi Goldberg, and other shows at Lifetime. She has also written scripts for such documentary series as The 20th Century and Biography".

Older and Single
Posted by Ronni Bennett
... more on as time goes by

No kidding. We’ve been down this path before with drug discount cards. Why
does it have to be this hard? And what happens if two drugs someone needs are
available only through two separate companies? Must they join two plans then,
and pay two premiums?

How It Works

Medicare says premiums will be “about” $37 a month, but will vary depending on the plan and health insurer chosen. The payout works like this according to the Medicare website:
You pay a deductible of $250 annually

On drug expenditures between $251 and $2,250, you pay 25 percent, or $500.
You pay the entire cost from $2,251 to $3600, or $2850.
After reaching the $3600 threshold, you pay five percent thereafter and Medicare pays 95 percent until the next year when it begins all over again.

Why is it this so complicated? What they are really saying is that for a total prescription drug expenditure of $2,250 a year, you pay $750, or 33 percent.

For a total prescription drug expenditure of $5100 annually, you pay $3600, about 70 percent. Following that you pay five percent.

Not bad until you consider the 2.4 million low-income elderly.

Asset Restrictions: For those with limited income and resources, the new Medicare drug plan includes extra help that can increase the benefit to between 85 and 98 percent of prescription costs.

To qualify, income from any source must be below $14,355 for single people and $19,145 for married couples living together.

But there’s more…

To be eligible for the extra help, the value of other assets cannot exceed $11,500 for
individuals and $23,000 for married couples.

The definition of those other assets includes:
Real estate other than primary residence
Checking and savings accounts
Certificates of Deposit
Stocks, bonds, IRAs and mutual funds
Cash lying around the house or elsewhere

So a widow with a modest savings of $51,500 (the average for 60 percent of single women 65 and older) which, invested conservatively, can earn about $1500 a year, would be ineligible for the extra help which could price her out of the prescription drug plan altogether.

The average Social Security benefit in 2003 was $11,065 a year,making it impossible for our widow to afford $3600 she would be required to pay for her drugs if they cost $5100 a year on the non-extra-help plan.

It is unconscionable that any old person in the richest country in the world can go without needed medication. ....read more here

HERE IS AN INTERESTING COMMENT I READ UNDER THE POST:
"Your Government At Work--It's bad enough that this law forbids the government from negotiating drug prices, check this out:

U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, who helped write the Medicare prescription-drug law, then got a job as president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "

Regina D. on July 18, 2005 03:30 PM

Yes, that is our representatives at work (for their selves as usual)