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Statement from Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center , on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ on the Medicare-approved drug discount cards:  

In response to consumer requests, a battery of experienced counselors at the Medicare Rights Center tested the Administration’s new drug discount card web site Thursday. They found that the site, only partially complete, is a bona fide effort to assist professional counselors who advise people with Medicare on the complex drug benefit.  Unfortunately, the counselors found that the web site fails to provide critical information that people need to consider before deciding whether to buy a card and which card to buy. The site currently is incomplete, imprecise and at times misleading.  

People need to know about all of their drug discount options, not only their Medicare-approved drug discount card options and pharmaceutical assistance programs.  Yet the site does not disclose all of these options.  Moreover, people who currently have drug coverage need to know whether buying a Medicare-approved drug discount card will affect their other coverage.  Yet, the site does not warn people that choosing a Medicare-approved card might impede access to other coverage.   

Regrettably, Congress and the Administration structured a cruelly complex system that affords the drug card sponsors the information advantage over consumers and will likely lock hundreds of thousands of people into a Medicare-approved drug discount card that may not meet their needs.  In many cases, it appears that existing discount programs – including state pharmaceutical assistance programs, mail order and internet options – provide lower prices than the Medicare-approved drug discount cards. A chart comparing a variety of discount drug options, “What’s the Best Deal? Prices for the Top 10 Drugs,” is available at http://www.medicarerights.org/rx_discount_ny.html.

The 2006 drug benefit promises even more daunting complexity. The Administration and Congress should create what the American people want and need: a prescription drug program that treats everyone equally, negotiates fair drug prices and provides reliable and comprehensive coverage.