Washington, DC – Concerned that many Inland Empire residents missed Monday's deadline for enrollment in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto) is calling on President Bush and Republicans in Congress to extend the deadline, waive the penalty against late enrollment and improve the drug coverage.

Rep. Baca said, “Unfortunately, everyone who is eligible to enroll but misses the deadline now will be left out until next year and will be required to pay the Bush prescription drug tax and higher premiums for life if they enroll in the future.”

 

Congressman Baca held a workshop earlier this year at the Ontario Senior Center to help Inland residents understand the complicated new prescription program. “The people who attended that event, just like those who send e-mail and letters to my office, told me they found Medicare Part D very confusing.  They wondered whether the program would actually save them any money and worried about picking a plan that would not cover the medicines they needed for their health.  Many people in our communities were not able to make sense of the complicated and confusing program in time to make a good decision” said Rep. Baca.

 

According to the Medicare Rights Center, nearly 51 percent of the people with Medicare who had no drug coverage on January 1st, still have no coverage, and over 80 percent of impoverished people with Medicare eligible for a comprehensive drug benefit have not been enrolled;

Prior to the launch of the drug benefit, 17.7 million people with Medicare had no or only limited prescription drug coverage. Today about 9 million continue to lack drug coverage.

 

“We can do better than this.  Many more Americans need coverage.  They need more time to make a good decision and furthermore need a better prescription drug benefit than what they have been offered,” said Rep. Baca.

District residents who responding to a survey conducted by Rep. Baca revealed near unanimous support for extending the May 15^th enrollment deadline to help seniors make better, more informed decisions about their health needs.

 

They also indicated a preference for Democratic proposals to improve flaws in the plan.  Rep. Baca said, “The more familiar the public becomes with the current Medicare Part D plan, the less they like it.  I support a Medicare prescription drug benefit that helps seniors more than HMOs. That's why I want to repeal the Republican prescription drug plan written to boost profits for big drug and insurance companies and replace it with real coverage for seniors and the disabled.”

 

Drug companies stand to reap almost $139 billion in windfall profits, while HMOs and insurance companies won a $46 billion slush fund to subsidize the plan to privatize Medicare.

 

The Republican plan does not allow the government to negotiate lower prices for Medicare participants.  Rep. Baca noted that the Veterans’ Administration is permitted to negotiate prices for veterans that are at least 50% lower than those for seniors under the Medicare plan.

 

The Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month to extend the enrollment deadline until January 1, 2007 and to waive the late enrollment penalty until after that time.

 

Rep. Baca said, “My Democratic colleagues and I also have a plan that would replace this legislation with a real prescription drug benefit. You can be assured that I will continue working to improve the prescription drug benefit and help make medicine more affordable for all Americans.”