People receiving Medicare Drug
Discount Card
subsidy at risk of losing Federal Housing assistance,
Consumer groups warn
Federal Court will be asked to step In
unless HUD Complies with new Medicare Law
New York, NY, July 2, 2004—The Medicare Rights
Center, a national consumer group, and the National Coalition for the
Homeless are demanding that U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson immediately issue a directive
confirming that the $600 Medicare drug discount card subsidy for
low-income people will have no bearing on eligibility or payments for
federal housing assistance.
The groups warned that they will seek
a court ruling requiring HUD to halt any reduction of federal housing
assistance as a result of the Medicare drug card subsidy unless
Secretary Jackson acts promptly.
Both the non-profit Medicare Rights
Center, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator
Mark McClellan have stated that the Medicare Prescription Drug,
Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 bars the reduction or loss of
federal benefits as a result of people with Medicare enrolling in the
$600 transitional assistance program.
“The discount card program is
confusing enough for people with Medicare,” said Robert M. Hayes,
president of the Medicare Rights Center. “Now HUD, in direct defiance
of plain Congressional intent, is leaving people perplexed over whether
they have to choose between housing assistance and drug assistance.”
After initial mishaps called to public
attention by Senator Tom Daschle (D - SD), the United States Department
of Agriculture agreed that it cannot deny or reduce food stamps
allotments for low-income people with Medicare who get the annual $600
Medicare drug discount card subsidy. Individuals with Medicare who have
annual incomes below $12,569 (couples – $16,862) are eligible for a
$600 subsidy on the Medicare-approved drug discount cards this year and
next. The MMA states that the transitional assistance cannot be treated
as benefits “or otherwise be taken into account in determining an
individual’s eligibility for, or the amount of benefits, under any
other Federal Program.”
A letter to Secretary Jackson from the
Medicare Rights Center and National Coalition for the Homeless, warns
that they are “prepared to seek a declaratory judgment in federal
court to compel your compliance with the MMA if HUD fails to do so.”