Prescription bills not right medicine for seniors

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Prescription bills not right medicine for seniors

By Roger W. Gallenstein, the Star-Telegram
October 12, 2003

Bills recently passed by the U.S. House and Senate to provide a Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors, although well-intended and aimed at providing a much-needed benefit for many on Medicare, have serious flaws.

If you are among the more than 12 million retirees who receive Medigap and/or prescription drug coverage from your former employer, these benefits are in serious jeopardy.

Not only would you receive less coverage under the current proposals, but the cost would be higher than that of your employer-sponsored plans.

Numerous retiree organizations such as the AARP, the National Retiree Legislative Network, Belltel Retirees and other groups that support retiree issues have found serious fault with these bills. Even the Congressional Budget Office has stated that many retirees would have their company-sponsored benefits reduced or eliminated if this legislation passes in its current form.

An article in the September AARP Bulletin ("A Nasty Surprise for Retirees") and a Sept. 16 article in The New York Times ("Retirees Alarmed at Threat of Cuts in Drug Benefits") expose this clandestine attempt to take these hard-earned benefits away from seniors.

And don't forget the $400 billion cost of the initial program, which would only explode as retirees move from company-sponsored plans to this Medicare plan.

One obscure and onerous provision in the Senate bill would, by amending the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act, give employers a green light to cut or cancel the health benefits of retirees eligible for Medicare and/or state-sponsored plans. This provision in the Senate bill is nothing more than a Trojan horse for age discrimination that has been worked out behind closed doors.

As was reported to the AARP by a Senate staffer on condition of anonymity, this provision was "hashed out by members of the employer community," with the staffer adding: "There was no public debate."

The House bill is also deficient, providing no real protection for employees who receive a Medicare prescription drug benefit from their former employer.

Although some members of Congress claim that protections are built into the House bill, these offer at best few safeguards and at worst are an amalgamation of subsidies, prescription cards and bureaucratic complexity.

If your member of Congress tells you that the protections are in the House bill, make that lawmaker show you the specific language, and then decide if this really protects your benefits.

Please don't be lulled into complacency by thinking that your former employer would not reduce or eliminate these benefits. When you started to work for your former employer 25, 30 or even 45 years ago, it was a different time. In fact, the retiree health care benefits that are now in jeopardy were in many instances initiated during this era.

This is not an indictment of the business community but rather a statement of today's reality, in which cost reduction and competitive pressures have made businesses look at every means to reduce overhead and cost.

Unfortunately, as retirees we fall primarily into the cost category, which makes us a target in this effort.

Although most companies reserve the right to cancel benefit programs at any time, the Senate and House bills make this more inviting for your former employer.

You wouldn't leave your house unlocked if you left for the day. The current legislation presents a similar situation -- it is an open invitation to employers to reduce or cancel your benefits.

There is still time to have this ill-conceived legislation amended before passage of the final bill. The bills are currently in a House-Senate conference committee. Texas Rep. Tom DeLay is on this committee.

As a retiree or future retiree, you need to act now! Members of Congress will react to pressure from their constituents if it is massive and forceful. Don't expect the other guy to do it.

Remember, these are your benefits, which you earned from your previous employer.

Contact your representatives and senators, including DeLay, and urge them to only support a final bill that precludes companies from eliminating or reducing existing Medigap and prescription drug coverage.

Don't let your elected officials pass flawed legislation in an attempt to garner votes for the 2004 election. Remind them that, like doctors, any legislation should "first, do no harm."

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