Murray says some seniors will get lost in switch to Plan D

Some of America’s seniors are likely to “fall through the cracks” as they struggle with a new program to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, Sen. Patty Murray said Thursday.

With dozens of plans, several different deadlines and complicated rules and instructions, the switch to Plan D drug coverage is causing confusion around the state, the Washington Democrat said during a town hall meeting in northeast Spokane.

Senior citizens on Medicare and low-income residents on Medicaid had a litany of concerns Thursday about the new program during the hour-long meeting.

Leslie Noll of Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors said some recipients received letters with the wrong information about co-pays, and some people who receive both Medicare and Medicaid are confused about deadlines.

“The only way you can get (some information) is from a list you pull off the Internet, and not everyone has the Internet,” Noll said.

Gerene Schmidt said she began in August researching the best plan to cover drugs she and her husband must take, and it took two months to receive an answer. And that wasn’t a definitive answer, she said.

Joseph Ready, who takes medication for HIV, said he’s researched 15 different plans and none covers some of the drugs his doctors prescribe for him.

There is an appeal process required by law, but until the plans take effect, no one knows how well it will work, Murray said.

She drafted legislation earlier this year to address some of the complaints people have about Plan D. It would have extended the signup for Medicare patients an extra year, to January 2008, before penalties are imposed; provided more assistance to low-income people covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, and given them a longer transition to the new plan.

Murray proposed it as an amendment to a spending bill, but it failed on a party-line vote over the question of whether it was germane to that bill. She’s looking for another bill to amend, and believes complaints from seniors around the nation might convince some senators to support it the next time, and change President Bush’s mind about a threatened veto of any changes to the Plan D program.