Bush to Promote Prescription-Drug Plan

Updated 12:48 PM ET August 29, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...0829_98&src=abc

President Bush is increasingly lending a hand to the administration's effort to sell older Americans on the value of a prescription drug benefit that begins next year for Medicare patients.

Trying to combat confusion about and criticism of the new government drug plan, Bush is to make appearances in two states Monday to talk it up. Leaving his Texas ranch for two days, Bush attends "conversations" with experts and the elderly in El Mirage, Ariz., and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

After spending the night in San Diego, he speaks on Tuesday at the Naval Air Station North Island there to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. His remarks focus on fighting terrorists and the ongoing campaign in Iraq. They recall the Aug. 14, 1945, Japanese surrender that came just days after the United States incinerated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs.

There has been indications that efforts to build support for the Medicare drug benefit including a few other appearances around the country by Bush are paying off. Congress allocated about $300 million to an awareness campaign.

A recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found for the first time that people were as likely to have a favorable view of the plan as to have an unfavorable view. Still, the survey found that more people do not plan to enroll than do.

The prescription drug benefit kicks in Jan. 1. About 43 million beneficiaries will be able to choose from two or more private plans that offer drug coverage.

[My parents are not enrolling.]

Feds OK Fla. Medicare Move to Managed Care
[it should say Medicaid]

Updated 9:55 AM ET October 20, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8dbq3l80&src=ap

By BILL KACZOR

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The federal government approved Florida's plan to shift thousands of Medicaid patients into managed care, an unprecedented pilot program that could be expanded to include millions of poor and elderly people covered under the system.

Gov. Jeb Bush and other proponents say transferring responsibility to private health plans would provide better care, and control the escalating costs of the health insurance program.

"I'm very confident that we will have a system that will focus on health rather than sickness," Bush said Wednesday from Washington, where he and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt announced the decision.

"I think this will be part of a national debate about how to create a more sustainable Medicaid program."

However, critics of the pilot program say some Medicaid recipients may end up losing benefits.

AARP, the group formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, questioned the state's ability to implement such a large program.

"The administration wishes to trust big private insurance companies to handle this vital task," AARP state director Bentley Lipscomb said in a statement. "Someone needs to ask the hard questions about how Florida's least fortunate will fare."

Although most elderly people have health insurance through Medicare, a separate program, some are covered under Medicaid.

Leavitt signed Florida's waiver from existing Medicaid rules, but the plan still needs approval from the Florida Legislature. Bush said he plans to call a special session in December to consider it.

The managed system would be implemented in July in Broward and Duval counties to see how well it works on a limited basis before getting final federal approval to go statewide.

Florida spends 25 percent of its budget on Medicaid and the program's costs have been increasing at the rate of 13 percent annually. The health insurance program covers more than 2 million of the state's poor and elderly.

"That's not sustainable," Bush said. "There's not a source of revenue in our state that grows at that rate over an extended period of time."

Under the plan, Medicaid-eligible residents in Broward and Duval counties would be allowed to chose a health care plan, including health maintenance organizations and networks established by doctors and hospitals.

Some critics think the Legislature should take its time before approving the plan.

"I'm not sure what the rush is," lobbyist Karen Woodall, an advocate for groups that represent Medicaid patients, told the St. Petersburg Times. "I believe there are still a number of unanticipated changes that should lead the Legislature to put the brakes on this."

Others say they expect resistance from Medicaid users.

"A lot of people are frightened and they don't know what to expect," said state Rep. Eleanor Sobel, a Democrat from one of the test counties. "There's a lot of resistance."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ahh, and now we have the results of the incompetance
that masquarades as the current administration...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/2...icaredrugs.html

Feinstein: 'Major health emergency' in Calif. from drug plan

By Erica Werner
ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:57 p.m. January 13, 2006

WASHINGTON – Problems with the federal government's new Medicare prescription drug plan are creating a health crisis in California, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Friday, a day after the state announced emergency drug coverage for California's seniors because of the problems.
Unlike most Democrats, Feinstein voted for the prescription drug plan pushed by President Bush when it passed the Senate in 2003. But in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, she said it was "incomprehensible" how many problems there have been with the program's implementation since it took effect Jan. 1.

Reported problems include elderly people being denied benefits because of wrong information in government databases. Pharmacists are supposed to be able to get eligibility information about seniors from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but the electronic systems aren't working, forcing pharmacists to call 1-800-MEDICARE and wait for hours on the phone, Feinstein said.

The problems appear to stem from the fact that 6 million elderly, low-income and disabled people – including 1 million Californians – were automatically switched into the new drug program Jan. 1. These people previously had been covered by the Medicaid state-federal health care program for the poor, called Medi-Cal in California.

The system was apparently not equipped to handle the influx.

"The result is a major health emergency in California, particularly for people with chronic and debilitating diseases who rely on multiple medications daily to keep them alive," Feinstein wrote.

"In my view, the state of California is absorbing a federal cost caused by incompetence," she wrote.

Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, defended the program in an interview with The Associated Press and said officials were working to solve the problems.

"We're not going to rest until every beneficiary gets the drugs they need," McClellan said, adding he is taking steps to ensure that the many companies offering drug plans under the new program are giving eligible seniors their prescriptions at the appropriate co-payment.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday ordered state health officials to cover pharmacy costs for prescription drugs for five days, and the state Legislature plans to meet Jan. 17 to extend the emergency coverage for another 10 days, at a cost to the state of some $70 million. Further extensions are possible.

California officials want assurances the federal government will reimburse California for the costs of the emergency care. More than a dozen other states are also providing emergency funding for drug coverage, among them Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Hawaii, Feinstein said.

Leavitt said states should be reimbursed down the road by the private plans.