According to the Bush administration, 37 million people have signed up to the Medicare Part D program, but Democrats believe the figure quoted is too high. Even if Bush’s figures are right, there are still 6 million people to go, and just four days till the deadline.

Democrats say it is more likely there are still 9 million people still without cover – not 6 million.

The Medicare Rights Center doubts the 5.8 million people added to the list of enrolees, through the Veterans Affairs Department, Indian Health Centers or employers, are all really instant enrolees. Many never had cover, said the Medicare Rights Center – it believes many of them have been counted twice.

Partly because of the numbers of people still to go, which many say could have something to do with the labyrinth of incomprehensible language, a sea of confusing options, plus high a incidence inaccurate information provided by Medicare operators, Democrats want the deadline to be postponed. The Bush administration, however, says everything is going very well and the deadline should stay.

George Bush urged America’s elderly, those who have not yet signed up, to do so now.

Anyone who signs up after the deadline, next Monday, 15 May, will face more expensive premiums. Increases of at least 1% per month after the deadline.

Authorities say they have taken on an extra 6,000 operators to help people sign up.

A recent GEO study – in which officials pretended to be seniors and called Medicare operators asking for information – found that over 30% of the answers they got were wrong. If it is so hard to understand what to do, if information from helplines is coming back wrong, why should the providers of such incorrect information and confusing literature penalise seniors who have not met the deadline? Many seniors could argue, and justifiably so, that they could not make it in time because the help they got was wrong and the information confusing.

If a private company were found to provide their customers with incorrect information and confusing manuals, I am sure lawyers would have a field day.

The Bush administration says the GAO report is out of date and that the information seniors have been receiving since early February has got better. This leads me, and many people, to a simple conclusion:

The period for enrolling started on January 1, 2006, and ends of May 15, 2006. That’s five and-a-half months. But, if the administration’s information is anything to go by, they did not get their act together till mid-February, when so much inaccurate information was sorted out. That’s one-and-a-half months after the start of the period. Wouldn’t it make sense, in all fairness, to extend the deadline by one-and-a-half months?

As far as I know, the administration was only referring to verbal information by Medicare operators, when talking about improving their service to enquirers since mid-February. The written stuff is still as confusing as ever.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today