CMA Open Letter re: Medicare Part D

The Center for Medicare Advocacy has sent Congress this 

OPEN LETTER REGARDING MEDICARE PART D:
TIME TO RETURN TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Recently, in editorial pages around the nation, the call has gone out to fix
the stumbling Medicare Part D program.  While we agree that the Medicare
prescription drug program has stumbled badly, it’s high time to recognize
that it can’t be “fixed”. The real problems lie in the very structure of
Part D.  It is unfortunate but true that Medicare Part D was designed to
move Medicare from a successful, uniform program aimed at providing access
to health care for people with Medicare, to a dizzying array of private
plans intended to benefit the pharmaceutical, insurance, and managed care
industries.  Indeed, because of this, Part D can hardly be referred to as a
“program”.  That’s why Medicare consumers and advocates are overwhelmed and
dissatisfied, and the powerful industries benefiting from Part D are still
cheerleading, silent, or insisting that all we need is to fix a few
glitches.

Medicare prescription drug coverage should be part of the traditional
Medicare program.  There should be a uniform national plan, available to all
who qualify, which can be accessed from anywhere in the country.
Experience shows that this is best and that it can be done. 

Medicare was enacted in 1965 because private insurance failed to meet the
needs of older people.  At that time only 50% of people over 65 had health
insurance.  The Medicare program worked successfully and cost-effectively,
providing health insurance for 95% of people over 65, and, beginning in
1972, also for millions of people with significant disabilities. The
traditional Medicare program succeeded where private insurance had failed. 

More recently, experiments with returning to private insurance for
people with Medicare also failed.   One need not think too far back to
remember Medicare+Choice, and the hundreds of private plans that abandoned
Medicare beneficiaries in droves despite the Government’s massive subsidies.

Everyone who cares about older people and people with disabilities should
insist that we stop wasting time and resources on this poorly conceived Part
D plan. It’s time for Congress to return to the drawing board to enact a
true Medicare drug program that is aimed first and foremost at helping
people.