Media Release
| For Immediate Release | Contact | Phone |
| May 9, 2006 | Mike Olender | 732-246-4772 |
| Ev Liebman | 856-966-3091 |
New Report Shows That Part D Has Failed Low Income New Jersey Seniors
New Jersey Citizen Action and Americans United are Releasing Report as Part of an Ongoing Effort to Convince Congress to Extend the May 15th Deadline and Fix Part D
North Plainfield – Today New Jersey Citizen Action released a new report by Families USA showing that the Bush Part D plan has failed to provide drug coverage to most of the low income New Jersey seniors eligible for subsidies and on average left the poorest of the poor worse off. The group is demanding that lawmakers extend the May 15th deadline to enroll in Medicare Part D and fix the problems plaguing the drug program.
New Jersey Citizen Action is working with state partners and the national group Americans United on a campaign to fix Part D. The embattled prescription drug law known as Part D has been called costly, confusing and corrupt because at the behest of President Bush and his allies in Congress it was written to benefit drug and insurance companies more than seniors. The two groups are urging Congress and President Bush to extend the May 15th deadline and fix Part D to provide a drug benefit that is simple, affordable and guaranteed.
The report prepared by Families USA, a national health care organization, underscores the need to fix Part D. Many of the neediest New Jerseyans have been failed by the program. 70% of low income New Jersey seniors are not receiving the benefits they were promised. On average the poorest 6.3 million Medicare beneficiaries nationwide are worse off under Part D than they were before. Nationally, relatively few beneficiaries are newly covered for prescription drugs under Part D. More than two-thirds of the "covered" beneficiaries had drug coverage before the start of Part D. An extension of the May 15th deadline would allow the time to make the desperately needed changes to Part D – without penalizing the millions of eligible Americans without drug coverage who have not yet enrolled or who aren't receiving the low-income subsidies they were promised.
New Jersey Citizen Action and Americans United are calling for the following changes to Part D:
- Require Medicare to use its free market muscle to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices.
- Close the "donut hole" gap in coverage between $2,250 and $5,100.
- Allow seniors the choice of obtaining their prescription drug plan directly from Medicare instead of a private insurance company.
- Eliminate the enrollment deadline and the penalty for failing to sign up for a plan until Part D is fixed.
"The fact that thousands of the neediest New Jersey seniors are not getting the prescription drug help this administration promised is very disturbing, but unfortunately not surprising given the problems that have plagued Part D from the outset," said Mike Olender, NJCA Organizer. "This new report demonstrates yet another reason why Representative Mike Ferguson and the rest of Congress must stand up for New Jersey seniors and support an extension of the May 15th deadline to enroll in Part D."
"Part D is clearly failing to meet the prescription drug needs of New Jersey seniors – which is unacceptable given the cost of the program to taxpayers," Olender added. "Congressman Ferguson should sign House Resolution 585 to extend the deadline and take the time to fix the program to make it simple, affordable and guaranteed."
###
New Jersey Citizen Action is the state's largest citizen watchdog coalition, with over 100 affiliate organizations and 60,000 individual members.
