News 475 Sen Baucus Warnings Unheeded Medicare Part D Drug Benefit The Hill

This is an interesting editorial written by Sen. Max Baucus about the way that the Medicare Part D drug benefit as been run thus far. Sen. Baucus voted in favor of the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003, but says that warnings and advice to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Service (CMS) went unheeded. He blames the CMS for the blundering of Medicare Part D's opening month. He says that he urged the CMS to restrict the number of prescription drug plans insurers were allowed to offer which would have limited the confusion felt by seniors trying to choose a plan and may have helped boost enrollment. He also states that after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed the CMS's plans for switching dual-eligible seniors from Medicaid drug plans to Medicare Part D, warnings were given that foretold of the problems that indeed came to fruition. Many seniors experienced tremendous difficulty obtaining much needed prescriptions and many received none at all. States had to pay for emergency supplies of medication in many circumstances. Sen. Baucus feels that all this could have been avoided if the CMS had listened to the advice given them by both himself and the GAO. He pledges to work further with the CMS to attempt to rectify problems and smooth out wrinkles to get the program running the way it was intended to run.

Read more: Seniors should get the benefit they need (The Hill) By Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) During the past 40 years, Medicare has improved the health of the elderly and disabled, prevented families from incurring catastrophic financial losses and cut the rate of uninsured elderly to near zero.