MRC Letter to Congress
June 13, 2003
Dear Member of Congress:
The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of Medicare information and assistance in the United States. Founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care. We write to thank you for your continuous efforts to enact a prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. We ask that you standardize the benefit and authorize sufficient funds for education and counseling to ensure that people can make informed Medicare choices.
From our vantage point, assisting older and disabled Americans every day, a prescription drug benefit is only meaningful if individuals understand the options and coverage available to them. Over a decade's worth of experience helping tens of thousands of clients confirms that many people with Medicare do not understand even basic Medicare concepts, let alone PPOs and a new prescription drug benefit. Millions of people with Medicare have low health literacy levels, and physical and cognitive impairments that limit their ability to understand their benefits; even the most sophisticated health care consumers are often overwhelmed by health insurance questions. Therefore, to ensure that people with Medicare make informed choices, they need an independent source of Medicare information, such as the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs).
SHIP funding, currently $12 million per year, is presently inadequate to even address the benefits currently available to people with Medicare. With the introduction of a new Medicare prescription drug benefit, new PPOs and a new bureaucracy to oversee private Medicare plans, consumers are going to be in need of even more Medicare information and counseling.
At a minimum, as part of any prescription drug legislation, we urge Congress to provide SHIP funding of $2.50 per year per consumer for education and outreach, a total of less than 1/4 of 1 percent of the cost of a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Americans have waited many years for a Medicare drug benefit, and Congress must not forget that without adequate funding for education and counseling, many people will not get the benefits they need. We look forward to working with you on assuring that Americans with Medicare are armed with good, independent information about their Medicare choices.
Sincerely
Robert M. Hayes