Encouraging All Eligible Medicare Beneficiaries to Review Available Options to Determine Whether Enrollment in A Medicare Prescription

ENCOURAGING ALL ELIGIBLE MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES TO REVIEW AVAILABLE OPTIONS TO DETERMINE WHETHER ENROLLMENT IN A MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN BEST MEETS THEIR NEEDS FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE -- (House of Representatives - May 10, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield half of my time to the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark).

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Ohio?

There was no objection.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 1/4 minutes.

Here are the facts. They aren't pretty. It is the evening of May 10. That means there are three working days left until the part D enrollment deadline.

If you are one of the more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries who lack coverage and you are not on Medicaid, this deadline is binding on you.

Unless you enroll by the 15th, you face a late penalty that increases each month until you do enroll. Your next enrollment opportunity isn't until November, but the penalty rises anyway.

When and if you do enroll, the accumulated penalty will be added to your monthly part D premium. Most beneficiaries who sign up in November will pay a 7 percent penalty for as long as they have coverage.

Why should seniors be tied to the original deadline when the part D program missed its own deadline?

Part D was supposed to be up and running by January 1. Unless you believe that mass confusion, major computer glitches, daily bad press, hit-or-miss consumer assistance qualifies as up and running, then part D was not up and running by January 1 or February 1 or March 1. It is barely up and running now.

Why are Medicare enrollees being pressured into a drug plan? Where is the line between pressure and coercion? And what right does the Federal Government have to let the drug industry and the insurance industry, and what right does the President have and the Republican leadership in Congress have to let the drug companies and the insurance industry write this bill, pass in the middle of the night and then penalize seniors when they are confused by this bill? If some seniors are wary of enrolling, who can blame them?

Aided by a less than hospitable Web site, a blizzard of insurance company marketing materials, an overburdened Medicare hotline, seniors are being asked to choose a drug plan that they simply can't understand, that no one can understand very well.

State and local agencies trying to help Medicare beneficiaries, including my office and the office of Mr. Green and Mr. Allen and Mr. Stark and Mr. McDermott, are doing the best we can. But navigating part D hasn't been easy for any of us.

There are 400,000 Medicare beneficiaries in my State who have not signed up. They shouldn't be pressured. They shouldn't be penalized. Seniors didn't ask the Republican majority to bypass Medicare and build a drug coverage obstacle course. Seniors didn't ask the Republican majority to let the drug companies write the bill and let the HMOs shape Medicare policy. That was this body's decision. That was the President's decision, based on huge numbers of HMO and drug company contributions. Seniors have to live with it. Giving them time is the least that we can do.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am confused by that. Are you saying 72 percent chose to sign up of those eligible?

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Seventy-two percent of those eligible are on the program, yes.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I am confused. Did they choose to sign up, or were some forced to sign up from Medicaid?

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Surely as our ranking member on the the Health Subcommittee, you know on dual eligibles they are signed up under the program, as the law provides. So dual eligibles are included.

Mr. Speaker, I will reclaim my time. The gentleman has more time remaining than I do. I will be glad to debate him on his time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow what Dr. BURGESS says, but GAO says 60 percent of the calls to 1-800 Medicare they have given out wrong information, and I wish our government would get organized before they penalize seniors for not being organized.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would correct my friend from Connecticut. Not all low income seniors can enroll without penalty, only some low income seniors can enroll without penalty. I hear her bragging that two-thirds of the time, two-thirds of the time you call 1-800 Medicare you get correct information.

That means one-third of the time you do not. So we are not penalizing the administration for not being able to get this law up and running correctly. Nobody has lost their job over that. But we are going to penalize seniors who have not made up their mind because of this confusing law, because they were getting wrong information from the 1-800 Medicare number that we talk about on the floor.

We are going to charge seniors as much as a 7 percent penalty for the rest of their lives if they do not get this together by November.

Mr. Speaker, a Republican pharmacist in my district said to me, he said, ``President Bush might as well have handed a blank legal pad to the drug industry and said write this new Medicare law.''

Congress and the President wrote a confusing plan at the behest of the HMOs and the drug companies, and then Congress and the President are saying that seniors should have to pay a penalty, seniors in Cincinnati and Dayton and Columbus and Toledo and Mansfield and Chillicothe and all over my State and all over Connecticut and all over Georgia and all over Minnesota have to pay a penalty because the drug industry and the HMOs and those lobbyists in Washington got this Congress to write a law like that. That hardly seems fair.

Mr. Speaker, I would just ask my friends on the other side of the aisle, please ask President Bush to extend this deadline so seniors do not have to pay a penalty for this very confusing new drug law.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/