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Friday Alert October 12, 2007
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. - Washington DC, 20006 - (202)
974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or
U.S. House to Attempt
Override of SCHIP Veto on
Thursday
President
Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill last Wednesday
set off a massive political fight that is expected to continue
dominating Congress next week. In advance of the House of
Representatives’ planned override vote on Thursday,
October 18, Alliance activists have been pulling out all the
stops. In Clemmons, North Carolina on Wednesday, activists
rallied against the anti-SCHIP vote that was cast by Rep.
Virginia Foxx (R). Today, in Tucson, the
Arizona Alliance is leading an intergenerational delegation in
thanking Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) for being
their “healthcare hero.” The group of retirees
and children there are presenting the Congresswoman with an
award and card, handcrafted by the kids in appreciation for her
“yes” vote to fully fund and expand SCHIP. On
Monday, Ohio Alliance activists will be targeting Reps.
Steve Chabot (R) and Jean
Schmidt (R). In Las Vegas, Alliance members from Nevada
will be calling their Members of Congress from their state
convention on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 16th and 17th.
Additional events in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington,
and other states have either already taken place or are planned
for next week. “Alliance members will be receiving a
Get Active message this Monday with an attached letter, urging
an override of the President’s veto, which they can e-mail
to their Member of Congress,” said Edward
Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance.
“Thank you for all you have done so far, and please
continue your hard work, which is very much noticed across
Capitol Hill.”
Lengthy Strike at Chrysler
Averted
After an approximately six-hour
strike on Wednesday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Chrysler
LLC reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. At
the same time, the UAW announced that workers at General Motors
(GM) plants had ratified their contract. Like GM's deal,
the tentative Chrysler contract calls for the automaker to
create a multibillion-dollar trust fund to cover the cost of
health care for UAW retirees. According to union President
Ron Gettelfinger’s quote in The Wall
Street Journal, the contract is designed so that Ford Motor
Co. “should be able to take the agreement and put it in
place there” as well.
More Evidence of Private
Medicare Insurance Plan Shortcomings
Tens of
thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive
sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private
insurers that run the system’s drug benefit program and
offer other private insurance options, a review of 91 federal
audits has found. The problems, described by The New
York Times, include massive backlogs of claims and
complaints, as well as a failure to answer telephone calls from
consumers, doctors and drugstores. Since March, Medicare
has imposed fines of more than $770,000 on 11 companies for
marketing violations and failure to provide timely notice to
beneficiaries about changes in costs and benefits. Of the
audits conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services,
39 focused on drug benefits, 44 focused on managed care plans
and 8 examined other types of private plans. Many insurers
do not have procedures to handle requests for drugs that may be
medically necessary but are not covered, auditors said.
The call center for WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest
insurers, took an average of 27 minutes to answer phone calls
from its members and 16 minutes to answer calls from health care
providers. More than half the callers hung up before
speaking to a company representative. “Last month we
had a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit showing
insurers benefiting excessively from Medicare Advantage
subsidies,” said George J. Kourpias,
President of the Alliance. “Now we have 91 audits
showing inferior service in private plans. The evidence
favoring a prescription drug benefit run by traditional
Medicare, rather than private plans, is just
overwhelming.”
Manufacturer Increases One
Drug’s Price More Than $21,000
A recent
article in The Philadelphia Inquirer notes that a
13-fold cost increase in a medication for seizures in infants
has highlighted the debate over prescription drug costs.
On August 27, the price of H.P. Acthar, a natural hormone with
only one manufacturer, increased from $1,650 per vial to more
than $23,000 per vial and approximately $100,000 per
patient. While the manufacturer, Questcor Pharmaceuticals
Inc., said the move was to improve a financial situation
threatening the company and that patient assistance programs had
been put in place, the spike has already caused insurance
companies to implement a stricter pre-authorization
process. Medicaid programs in some states are resisting
the treatment, and many patients will have a harder time
obtaining the drug. Experts noted that costs for new drugs
for rare diseases frequently surpass $100,000 a year, and that
dramatic price increases are more common when there are so few
customers. They cited a 2006 move by Ovation
Pharmaceuticals Inc., which raised the price of an
anti-inflammatory drug for premature babies from $100 to $1,875
per three vials.
Means Testing Proposed for
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan
The Bush
Administration and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) are
proposing a means-test for the Medicare prescription drug
benefit, increasing premiums and deductibles on beneficiaries
with higher incomes, according to The Washington
Post. Originally part of President
Bush's FY2008 budget and rejected 52 to 44 by the
Senate in March as a similar proposal, the measure has been
brought up again at Sen. Ensign's request. The plan calls
for higher payments for individuals with incomes exceeding
$82,000 and couples making more than $164,000, but does not
allow for an annual inflation adjustment of the threshold.
This move guarantees more and more beneficiaries would be hit
with higher payments over time, with the plan costing seniors
$3.2 billion the first five years alone. Ensign has
promised to add means-testing to any Medicare bill that comes
before the Senate and his proposal is likely to be heard by the
Finance Committee, of which he is a member, within weeks.
“Some wealthy people could be driven to leave Medicare by
means-testing, undermining the stability of the program,”
said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the
Alliance. “Costs for middle and lower-income seniors
who depend on it would rise as a consequence of the program not
being universal.”
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Alliance for Retired Americans 815 16th
St, NW Washington, DC 20006 www.retiredamericans.org
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