Public cool to U.S. Congress's Medicare proposals

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Public cool to U.S. Congress's Medicare proposals

By Julie Rovner, Reuters Health

June 19, 2003

WASHINGTON - Two polls released Wednesday suggest that when it comes to adding a drug benefit to the Medicare program, many Americans are not ready to embrace the plans being considered by Congress.

A survey of 1,424 adults by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found that those already enrolled in Medicare overwhelmingly prefer the government-run program to private plans -- 63 percent versus 19 percent.

And more Medicare beneficiaries want the new drug benefit delivered by Medicare itself, rather than by private plans -- 55 percent versus 29 percent. The survey's margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

"People want to build on the current program," said Kaiser Foundation president Drew Altman.

Both the House and Senate Medicare bills under consideration seek to encourage beneficiaries to join private plans to get all their health care services, including drug coverage. And both bills would deliver the new drug benefit through private plans, even if beneficiaries remain in Medicare's government-run program for all their other health care.

Respondents in the Kaiser/Harvard survey wanted a more generous plan than those under consideration, which would pay an average of one-third of Medicare beneficiaries' drug costs. Fifty-four percent said they preferred a benefit as generous as most working people get from their employers, even if that cost the government and taxpayers more.

A separate survey conducted for the AFL-CIO by Hart Research just last weekend, found that voters older than 50 had what Hart's Geoff Garin called a "largely negative" reaction to the Senate bill.

"This is not a plan that sufficiently helps seniors address the high cost of prescription drugs," said Garin.

He said that by a margin of 44 percent to 39 percent, "people currently eligible for Medicare or who will become eligible within 10 years say that congress should not approve this plan."

Garin said that "what seniors are looking for is relief from excessive drug prices," a finding also borne out in the Kaiser/Harvard poll.

That survey found that 72 percent and 91 percent of respondents support, respectively, federal efforts to overtly control the prices of drugs or negotiate with companies to get lower prices. While support fell when respondents were told that lower drug prices might mean companies would develop fewer new drugs, a majority of those surveyed -- 54 percent -- still supported drug price negotiations.

But the Kaiser/Harvard survey did find some generational differences in opinion.

While current beneficiaries were largely negative toward those private plans, younger people -- who are more accustomed to managed care -- were much more willing to consider them.

Sixty percent of respondents ages 18 to 49 said they would prefer to receive their retiree health benefits from a private health plan rather than Medicare, while 63 percent of current retirees prefer the government-run plan.