Seniors skeptical on Medicare law
BROOKLINE, Pa. - It's showtime at Elizabeth Seton Center in this well-groomed Pittsburgh suburb, and a feisty crowd of retirees is tuned in to an old favorite, Uncle Walter.
On display is a video presentation narrated by Walter Cronkite on the details of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, passed in December. For the seniors, the 13-minute video confirms what a growing number of them suspected: that the new law, muscled through the Republican-controlled Congress and embraced by the White House as an election-year vote-getter, is in reality a multibillion dollar giveaway to drug makers and health-care providers.
"I can't wait until November,'' said 82-year-old Frank Conti, who once worked at the steel mill in nearby Clairton. Conti said he had "about 700 reasons'' to vote against President Bush - one for each page of the Medicare law.
The video is the centerpiece of a 22-city tour launched this month by Families USA, a nonpartisan advocacy group for seniors. The roadshow is attracting thousands of retirees, many in electoral battleground states like Pennsylvania, said Ron Pollack, the group's executive director. At the events, signs of a backlash against the Medicare bill are emerging.
"Based on the reactions we encountered among seniors, I think this is going to boomerang on the administration,'' said Pollack, who expects the law will actually drive drug prices higher and leave seniors vulnerable to gaps in their prescription drug coverage. "What was clearly designed to be a top issue for getting the senior vote has become an enormous liability.''
For years, both Republicans and Democrats pushed for an overhaul of Medicare. A Senate version of the bill passed late last year; the House added a prescription drug benefit, which some Republicans opposed as too expensive and some Democrats said was too stingy. The bill was passed in the House at 3 a.m.
The White House endorsed the bill as the best way to give hard-pressed seniors affordable health care, and strategists from both parties expected the drug benefit would prove popular in an election year.
But since the bill's passage, the White House has been accused of withholding information about the true costs of the drug benefit. Last month, Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster said the price of the program would be close to $530 billion, not the $400 billion estimate disclosed when the bill was being debated in Congress. Foster said he wanted to share the higher estimate well before the December vote, but was threatened with dismissal by his then-boss, Thomas Scully. Scully denies he intimidated Foster into suppressing the data.
Some prominent Republicans have rallied behind Foster. The House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Bill Thomas of California, has scheduled hearings on what Democrats are calling ``Medigate.'' Yet few Republicans say the new Medicare law is causing them problems back home.
``I haven't seen any pushback yet,'' said Representative Mark Foley of Florida. ``If you look at what seniors have today, it's zero. When the bill kicks in, they'll get a 30 to 60 percent discount on what they're paying out of pocket.''
That's not how the new law is playing out in places like Brookline, where the 87-year-old Cronkite still seems to be the most trusted man in America, at least among his peers. Cronkite, in concert with health-care analysts like Pollack and retirees, underscored the law's ``disappointing features.''
The video made the following main arguments:
The new law bars Medicare from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for less expensive drug prices, as the Veterans Administration has done for years on behalf of its members. "Because of the tremendous clout of the pharmaceutical industry,'' Pollack said, "they were able to get Congress to write legislation that prohibits Medicare from bargaining on behalf of seniors to get prices down.''
"It's a benefit for the drug companies,'' retorted a senior.
Drug imports from countries like Canada, where the prices are much less expensive because of cost controls, are permissible only with the approval of the secretary of health and human services, who has said he opposes cross-border sales.
"They think we're stupid,'' another person declared.
Medicare pays 75 percent and seniors pay 25 percent for their annual drug costs up to $2,250. For the next $2,850, Medicare pays nothing. Even then, recipients must pay a monthly premium of $35 in addition to a $250 annual deductible.
"It's a shell game,'' contended another retiree.
Kathleen Motto, a special assistant for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers Medicare, attended the Brookline presentation and said it was ``fair, with a lot of good information.''
The video was followed by speeches from local health specialists and Brookline's representative in Washington, Democrat Mike Doyle, who called the manner in which the Medicare bill was passed "the most disgusting thing I've seen in 10 years in Congress.''
When the presentation ended, 70-year-old Jean Friday predicted lawmakers who supported the Medicare law would regret their votes come November. "Anyone with any sense knows this is not good for them,'' she said.
Her husband, Ed, wore a cap that identified him as a member of the Steelworkers Organization for Active Retirees - veterans of the Rust Belt economy and members of a potent electoral demographic.
"We talk about Iraq and other things when we get together,'' he said, "but among us seniors, health care is by far the most important issue.''
Stephen J. Glain can be reached at glain@globe.com.
