Press Release             

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deane Beebe
Communications Director
212-204-6219
E-mail
Medicare Rights Center

December 5, 2006

New Yorkers Enrolled in Medicare Private Drug Plans Must Decide Now if They Need to Switch to a Different Plan for 2007

New York Medicaid Drug Coverage Safety Net Scheduled to End for Most Drugs, Unless New York Legislators Act Now

New York, NY - The Medicare Rights Center is warning the millions of New Yorkers with Medicare that private drug plans are changing their costs and coverage in 2007 and that older and disabled New Yorkers need to review their current plan to see if it will be beneficial next year.

The Medicare Rights Center’s new report “Ten Things New Yorkers Should Know When Picking a Medicare Drug Plan,” released at a City Hall press conference today with state Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard N. Gottfried, explains that New Yorkers must review everything from 2007 drug plan formularies and restrictions on covered drugs to monthly premiums and coverage in the gap known as the doughnut hole.

“It is an especially exploitative marketplace in New York with 61 different insurers hawking Medicare drug plans for 2007,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a New York based national consumer service organization. “New Yorkers cannot assume that if a Medicare private drug plan was affordable and covered their drugs this year, the plan will work for them next year.”

The risk for poor New Yorkers with Medicare is particularly troubling, according to the Medicare Rights Center. The group reports that last year New Yorkers with both Medicare and Medicaid were switched from Medicaid drug coverage to Medicare private drug plans, leaving tens of thousands of New Yorkers stranded without their prescriptions until New York’s Medicaid program stepped in to help. This Medicaid safety net will be very limited in 2007 unless there are quick legislative changes.

"On January first, thousands of low-income elderly and disabled New Yorkers will lose the help Medicaid now gives them for getting their prescription drugs,” said Mr. Gottfried. “Governor Pataki proposed to end this Medicaid wrap-around coverage on July 1, 2006. Fortunately, the Assembly won a six-month reprieve. But on New Year’s Day, we will face a crisis. That is why I'm proposing legislation to make the Medicaid wrap permanent."

New Yorkers who have both Medicare and Medicaid, dual eligibles, will be automatically enrolled into the same Medicare private drug plan next year – regardless of whether there have been changes to the plan’s formulary or restrictions placed on covered drugs. If their plan’s monthly premium is increasing to more than $26.45 in 2007, however, they will be randomly assigned to a new plan unless they made their own plan choice for 2006.

The Medicare Rights Center advises New Yorkers who are 65+ that if they are eligible for EPIC, New York State’s pharmaceutical assistance program, they should enroll. EPIC’s coverage works well with Medicare private drug plan coverage and fills in the gaps. New Yorkers who have EPIC and do not sign up for a Medicare private drug plan will not be penalized should they decide to enroll in a plan at a later date.

People with Medicare who want to switch plans next year, or sign up for the first time, should do so by December 8, 2006 to better ensure their coverage will be in place on January 1st, the independent consumer group said.

The Medicare Rights Center offers the following resources to help New Yorkers select a Medicare private drug plan and apply for the subsidy known as “Extra Help” to pay for it:

“Ten Things New Yorkers Should Know When Picking a Medicare Drug Plan” is available on the Medicare Right’s Center’s website at http://www.medicarerights.org/pdptips2007.pdf

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