'Means Testing' Proposal For Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit 'Fair,' Editorial States

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 16 Oct 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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A "means testing" proposal by the Bush administration, under which higher-income Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay higher premiums and deductibles under the prescription drug benefit, "won't put much of a dent in the massive future deficits facing Medicare," according to a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial. However, the editorial states, "as more and more baby boomers become eligible for the prescription drug benefit, this step represents the kind of cost containment that needs to be undertaken," provided that the higher premiums and deductibles are "modest enough that they won't lead wealthy seniors to abandon Medicare."

The federal government also must "do a better job of making sure all Medicare beneficiaries are being treated fairly by private insurers," the editorial states. According to the editorial, a recent New York Times analysis found "tens of thousands" of Medicare beneficiaries "have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and were improperly denied claims by private insurers" that operate prescription drug plans. The editorial states, "The fines imposed by the government so far on 11 companies are too puny to stop these violations," adding, "Beneficiaries need to know the program is looking out for their interests."

The "concept of means testing is fair" because the Medicare prescription drug benefit "is enormously costly to taxpayers, and it doesn't shock the senses to ask the most affluent beneficiaries to pay a little more," the editorial concludes (Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/15).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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