MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE DELAYED IN STATES

[rodeodance]

There are more detailed (clickable) stories at the website.


HEALTH CARE -

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1715627

- MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE DELAYED IN STATES: Many seniors and those with disabilities are now having to wait weeks for counseling as a result of staffing shortages in the states. Delaware, for example, has only four insurance counselor staff members to advise 120,000 seniors and each "day they handle about 40 calls, but about 60 go unanswered." While federal officials increased funding for state insurance counseling programs (from $12 million two years ago to $32 million this year), it doesn't seem to have gone far enough. Medicare beneficiaries face a May 15 deadline to sign up before penalties raising the cost of enrollment set in, and the delays could "slow enrollment of up to 30 million Medicare beneficiaries."