| Seniors will spend more, see
coverage gap widen under new Medicare bill according to analysts
WASHINGTON,
Nov. 25 — Seniors will face annual increases in premiums and
deductibles — and a growing gap in coverage — for the prescription
drugs they buy under the new Medicare law, budget analysts say. For
example, the $250 annual deductible at the start of the program in 2006
is projected to rise to $445 by 2013.
The legislation that won final Congressional
approval Tuesday would allow seniors to buy coverage — at an estimated
monthly premium of $35 — for their prescription drugs beginning in
three years. After they agreed to the monthly premiums and paid their
first $250 in pharmacy bills, the coverage would kick in, paying 75
percent of their bills between $250 and $2,250.
After that, there would be no further coverage until
beneficiaries’ drug bills for the year reached $5,100, leaving a gap
of $2,850 that they would have to pay out of their own pockets. Above
$5,100 the insurance would pick up roughly 95 percent of costs.
Those are the numbers supporters of the bill have used, with little
mention that they would change in future years.
But after just one year, the Congressional Budget Office projects that
seniors would see their $250 deductible and the $2,850 gap for which
there is no coverage both jump 10 percent.
By 2013, the eighth year of the
program, the deductible and the coverage gap are both projected to grow
by 78 percent. In other words, seniors would pay a $445 deductible, and
those with the largest drug bills would be entirely responsible for more
than $5,000 in drug costs.
“I think these numbers will come as a shock to consumers, and they are
pretty optimistic projections based on what drug costs are going to
do,” said Gail Shearer, a health policy analyst at Consumers Union and
an opponent of the legislation. She noted the focus has been on 2006,
the year the prescription drug benefit begins.
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