Medicare Prescription Drugs:

1
Medicare Prescription Drugs Stark Choices for
Seniors
2
The House GOP Bill

• Ends Medicare as We
• Know It
• Pushes Seniors into
• HMOs
• Has No Limits on
• Premiums
• Has a Massive Gap In
• Coverage, Costing
• Seniors Thousands

3
My ViewAny Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
must be

• Affordable Must have affordable premiums,
  reasonable deductible and must significantly
  reduce the price of prescription drugs
• Guaranteed With real, guaranteed, defined
  benefits and no gaps or gimmicks

4
My ViewAny Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
must be

• Available to all seniors and disabled
• Americans on Medicare no matter where
• they live rural or urban or what their
• incomes are
• Within the Medicare program not a
• separate privatized plan that lets HMOs
• make all the decisions about costs and
• benefits

5
Their ApproachThe
Republican plan is

• Not affordable does not control the prices
  charged by drug companies premiums and
  deductibles are not guaranteed and can increase
• Not offered through Medicare leaves the big
  HMOs and insurance companies in charge not
  stable and reliable

6
Their ApproachThe
Republican plan is

• Not guaranteed private insurers can
• change terms every year coverage
• gap takes away coverage for nearly
• half of all seniors just when its
• needed most
• Same plan not available to all
• premiums can vary from plan to plan
• and state to state

7
AARP Agrees
"Congress and the Administration now have the
opportunity to make one of the most important
changes to Medicare since the enactment of the
program - the addition of prescription drug
coverage...Nevertheless there are a number of
fundamental issues - primarily the program
structure and the adequacy and affordability of
the benefit package - that must be fixed before
AARP and its members could support the final
conference agreement."  -AARP, July 14, 2003
8
Republican Plan Not Affordable Republican
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Does Not Help
Average Medicare Beneficiary
9
Democratic Plan Provides True Relief For Average
Medicare Beneficiary
10
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12
GOP Plan Pushes Seniors Into Unreliable HMOs
"AARP opposes a premium support structure, such
as in the House bill, that could destabilize the
Medicare program and require beneficiaries to pay
even more out of pocket...MedicareChoice
experience strongly suggests that private plans
will enroll younger and healthier beneficiaries,
leaving older and sicker individuals to drive up
traditional Medicare spending rates. -AARP,
July 14, 2003
13
GOP Plan Pushes Seniors into Unreliable HMOs
14
GOP Plan Pushes Seniors into Unreliable HMOs
15
GOPs Plan For Medicare

• To those who say that the bill would end
  Medicare as we know it, our answer is We
  certainly hope so.
• -Bill Thomas, Chairman of the Ways and Means
  Committee, MSNBC, 6/25/03
• I believe the standard benefit, the traditional
  Medicare program, has to be phased out.
• -Rick Santorum, Chairman of the Senate Republican
  Conference, 5/21/03
• Former Majority Leader Armey called Medicare a
  program that I would have no part of in a free
  world.
• -Chicago Tribune, 7/11/95

16
"Do you think anybody in Washington has any idea
what people on a limited income have to do to
live?" Ed Human, 68, on legislation in Congress
to add prescription drug benefits to Medicare.
Stolberg, New York Times, 6/24/03
17
The Democratic AlternativeNo Gaps or Gimmicks

• Premium 25 a month
• Deductible 100 a year
• Co-insurance beneficiaries pay 20 Medicare
  pays 80
• Out-of-pocket limit 2,000 per beneficiary per
  year
• Additional Low-income assistance

18
The Democratic Alternative Lower Drug Prices,
Affordable Drugs for Seniors

• Uses the collective bargaining power of
  Medicares 40 million beneficiaries to guarantee
  lower drug prices
• Reduces drug prices for everyone by stopping big
  drug company patent abuses

19
The Democratic Alternative Guarantees the
Choices that Matter

• Choice of prescription drug
• Choice of pharmacy
• Choice of doctor and hospital

20
Reliable coverage of affordable drugs through a
guaranteed planNOT privatization
Strengthening Medicare