Feds announce Medicare drug plan that starts at $20 a month
August 30th, 2005 by RespiteMatch.comAugust 30, 2005
BY KRISTEN HALLAM Advertisement
WASHINGTON — Medicare, the U.S. government health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, said its drug coverage that starts in January will include at least one plan for $20 or less a month in every region of the United States except Alaska.
Patients with income low enough to qualify for other types of government assistance will have a choice of at least five plans that provide coverage with no premium, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Monday. Medicare, which covers 42 million Americans, is completing a review of drug plans proposed by private insurers.
Details of private-sector insurance plans will be disclosed on Oct. 1, and sign-up begins Nov. 15 and runs through May 15.
Coverage under the new “Plan B” designation can begin as early as Jan. 1, 2006.
The lower-premium plans are part of a menu of options Medicare will offer to encourage as many as 30 million seniors to enroll in the drug coverage, which will be managed by insurance providers and HMOs such as Aetna Inc., State Farm and many others. The lower premiums will be among alternatives to standard drug coverage, which Medicare earlier this month said would carry an average monthly premium of $32.20.
‘’For just $20 or $30 a month, seniors will be able to get a Medicare-approved prescription drug plan that will provide real help and protect their life savings from ever being eroded by high prescription drug costs,'’ Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said in the statement.
President Bush, Leavitt and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao are heavily promoting the new drug benefit in public appearances this week.
Aetna, WellPoint Inc., PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Cigna Corp. are among the companies vying to offer drug coverage to seniors. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the program, will decide next month which companies can offer drug plans.
AP
