About 7.3 million expected to apply for drug card
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 10, 2003
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration estimates that 7.3 million Medicare recipients will sign up for the new prescription drug discount card next year, including 4.7 million with incomes low enough to receive $600 from the federal government to pay drug bills.
But 2.7 million other low-income beneficiaries will fail to enroll and forfeit the annual subsidy, government officials said Wednesday.
The card, expected to be available in June, is a step on the way to prescription drug insurance under Medicare that will begin in 2006. The drug card is included in the Medicare law that President Bush signed Monday.
For an annual fee of no more than $30, the card should offer savings of 10 percent to 15 percent off overall drug spending, with savings on individual prescriptions as high as 25 percent, officials said.
The card is aimed at Medicare patients "without any insurance who pay full price for drugs," said Leslie Norwalk, acting deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "These are often those who can least afford to pay full price," she said.
The card will have to cover at least one drug in each of 209 classes of prescription drugs, far more than most programs already available, and is expected largely to replace the assortment of pharmacy, insurance and drug maker discount cards now in use.
The cards are likely to offer different discounts for different drugs made by different companies. Participants will have to choose a card based on which one meshes best with their prescriptions.
For low-income people without drug coverage, the cards will function as prescription drug debit cards, with the government providing $600 a year to defray drug expenses. Depending on income, these cardholders will have to a co-payment of either 5 percent or 10 percent of the prescription’s cost.
To receive the credit, people will have to attest that their income is below 135 percent of the federal poverty level — $12,123 for 2003.
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