Affordable Care Act Saves Seniors $2.1 Billion in Drug Costs
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The Affordable Care Act has saved nearly 3.6 million people enrolled in Medicare $2.1 billion on their prescription drugs in 2011, finds a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the health care reform law signed by President Obama in 2010:
is already saving money for millions of Americans with Medicare. As we move forward, we will close the donut hole completely and save even more money for everyone with Medicare.
The Affordable Care Act—which Republican lawmakers are fighting to repeal—provides a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs and, beginning this year, a 14 percent discount on generics. Last year, it provided a 7 percent discount on covered generic medications for people who hit the prescription drug coverage gap known as the donut hole, with more than 2.8 million beneficiaries receiving $32.1 million in savings on generics.
Overall, the 3.6 million Americans who hit the donut hole saved an average of $604 on the cost of their prescription drugs. The Affordable Care Act closes the donut hole completely by 2020.
Click here for a state-by-state look at donut hole savings figures for today’s donut and here for a fact sheet.
Seniors: Join Biden in Medicare/Health Care Reform Conference Call
Vice President Joe Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will host a conference call Thursday, Sept. 23, at 11:30 a.m. EDT to talk about how the new health care reform law helps seniors on Medicare.
The law lowers the cost of prescription drugs and provides free preventive benefits in Medicare as of Jan. 1, 2011. The new law:
- Provides a $250 rebate to those in the Medicare “donut hole” (those checks started going out earlier this summer) and in subsequent years fully closes this coverage gap.
- Ends co-payments and deductibles for annual physicals, mammograms, colonoscopies and other preventive screenings.
- Helps early retirees (ages 55 to 64) better afford and keep their private health insurance.
- Enables middle-class families to better afford the high costs of long-term care.
- Strengthens the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by ending wasteful taxpayer subsidies and overpayments to private insurance companies who operate Medicare Advantage programs.
For more on the new health care reform law from the Alliance for Retired Americans, click here.
Got Health Care Reform and Medicare Questions? Ask President Obama!
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Are you a Medicare recipient with questions about the new health care reform law, or do you know someone who is? Tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to get those questions answered by President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
They are hosting an hour-long, live tele-town hall meeting Tuesday, starting at 11:15 a.m. EDT. Health care advocates and senior activists will discuss the key provisions and expanded benefits that the new health care law provides for Medicare participants. The meeting will focus on the $250 “donut hole” rebate checks that will soon be in the mail and the efforts to combat some of the commercial scams and schemes aimed at seniors.
New Brochure on Health Care Reform and Medicare Available
Seniors around the country who count on Medicare for their health coverage and have questions about how the new health care reform law impacts their coverage can find many of those answers in a new brochure that will be in their mailboxes soon or by downloading a copy here.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is mailing the brochure to all traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage enrollees. It assures beneficiaries that “the guaranteed benefits you currently receive will remain the same,” including choice of doctors. It outlines the key provisions and expanded benefits of the new law.
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, writes in an introduction that the new health care reform law will
provide you and your family greater savings and increased quality health care. It will also ensure accountability throughout the health care system so that you, your family, and your doctor—not insurance companies—have greater control over your care.
HHS Report Slams Insurers Premium Hikes While Pocketing Record Profits
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Profits for the nation’s 10 largest health insurance companies increased 250 percent between 2000 and 2009—10 times faster than inflation—but that hasn’t stopped the private insurance industry from trying to reach even deeper into consumers’ pocketbooks with huge premium increases.
According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation’s five largest insurance companies took in combined profits of $12.2 billion last year, up 56 percent over 2008.
But companies such as Anthem Blue Cross of California, owned by WellPoint, which enjoyed a $4.7 billion profit in 2009, want more. Anthem announced this month it would raise premiums on 800,000 Californians by as much as 39 percent. Insurers in several other states are seeking similar hikes. Says HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius:
Over the last year, America’s largest insurance companies have requested premium increases of 56 percent in Michigan, 24 percent in Connecticut, 23 percent in Maine, 20 percent in Oregon, and 16 percent in Rhode Island, to name just a few states. Premium increases have left thousands of families that are already struggling during the economic downturn with an unpleasant choice between fewer benefits, higher premiums, or having no insurance at all. Hard-working families deserve better.
New Polls Show Public Demands a Public Option, and More Health Care News
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We’re watching closely to see if the U.S. Senate begins its debate on health care this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will unveil the Senate bill tonight and we could see the first vote to begin debate as early as Saturday.
As we make some progress in the Senate, however, let’s remember we need to make sure the bill that passes isn’t just reform in name only, but really helps people. That means we need a public health insurance option to compete with insurance companies and keep health care affordable for everyone.
Across the country, people understand that a public health insurance option matters:
- In a new AP poll: 52 percent support a public health insurance option compared with only 35 percent opposed.
- In a new Washington Post/ABC poll: 53 percent support a public option compared with 43 percent opposed.
- And in a new CBS poll, 61 percent of people said they wanted the choice of a public health insurance option.
Public Option Must Be Part of Health Care Reform
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If Senate and House members vote against including a public health insurance plan option in health care reform, they very well could lose the backing of working families and their unions in the next elections, says AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.
Trumka issued the warning in an interview with Sam Stein of Huffington Post after recent news reports indicated a public option to allow working families to choose between a private plan or a public plan that offers quality care could be pulled from health care reform legislation. Trumka told Stein:
We’ll look at every one of their votes. If they’re against the Employee Free Choice Act, if they’re against health care for that reason, I think it’ll be tough for them to get support from working people.
Teabaggers: ‘Their Intent Is to Stop Conversation’
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The orchestrated, handbook-guided extremist disruptions of town hall meetings on health care reform being held by members of Congress are turning into “a series of shout-downs and freak-outs,” says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.
“…something resembling right-wing performance art. [It's] a well-orchestrated national effort to mobilize teabaggers to go and shut down these town hall events with raucous demonstrations and generally making it impossible for the members of Congress to talk.”
“Teabaggers” refers to the fact that many of the groups behind the manipulated chaos are the same outfits that staged the phony grassroots “Tea Party” tax protests earlier this year. Then, as now, Fox News and other right-wing media outfits are trying to portray the actions as genuine revolts. Many of staged tax “protest” events drew just a handful of people, but closeup camera angles and breathless, fawning coverage seriously exaggerated the scope of the protests.
Sebelius: Now Is the Time for Health Care Reform
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This is the year for passing real health care reform and to begin rebuilding the nation’s middle class by passing laws that give workers a free choice to join a union. And union retirees, one of the most active political groups in the country, will play a big role in bringing about change, top government leaders said.
Speaking in the opening session of the Alliance for Retired Americans annual legislative conference last night, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the seniors they can be a big part in the historic shift in health care policy.
This is the time [to pass health care reform]. This is the moment. We cannot let it pass by. This is the year for health care reform to be passed. It’s the president’s number one priority.
Retirees Set to Tell Lawmakers: Health Care Reform Now
For three hours before the formal opening of their annual legislative conference today, members of the Alliance for Retired Americans got down to business by taking part in workshops on health care reform and Social Security. They will be joined by speakers such as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
Throughout the June 15-18 conference in Washington, D.C., delegates and many high-level officials and union leaders will discuss the best solutions to the nation’s health care crisis and develop strategies to protect and strengthen Social Security.
In her opening address, Alliance President Barbara Easterling said seniors are in a unique position to influence the debate on health care. It is important for seniors to define the health care issue for Congress and the American people, Easterling said.
