Perspective               

HMOs Serving 200,000 Elderly and Disabled Adults to Leave Medicare

Once again, thousands of older and disabled Americans will have the rug completely pulled out from under them when their HMOs leave the Medicare program, says Robert Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center. According to the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP), 200,000 older adults and people with disabilities will be dropped by their Medicare HMOs in 2003. This raises the number of people who have been abandoned by their Medicare HMOs to 2.4 million since 1998.

AAHP also said that there will be major benefit changes in those HMOs that stay in the Medicare program. This could mean decreases in benefits, including prescription drug coverage, and increases in premiums and copayments. The average monthly premium for a Medicare HMO rose from $23 in 2001 to $32 dollars in 2002. Many people enrolled in a Medicare HMO pay more than $50 a month.

Medicare HMOs are once more demonstrating that they cannot provide older adults and people with disabilities with the predictable costs, continuity of care, and guaranteed coverage they need and that the Original Medicare program offers. In fact, the Medicare Rights Center (MRC) expects that many of those 200,000 people dropped from their HMOs will return to Original Medicare. Of the 40 million people with Medicare, about 35 million have Original Medicare. The Bush Administration and Congress should fill the coverage gaps in Medicare so that everyone with Medicare has prescription drug coverage.

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