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Medicare: Questions & Answers
Q. What new preventive care benefits will be available to Medicare beneficiaries?
All newly eligible Medicare beneficiaries
will receive a "Welcome to Medicare" physical. In addition, Medicare beneficiaries will now receive cholesterol screenings, cardiovascular screenings, and disease management programs to ensure that
seniors better understand their health status and are able to combat debilitating diseases like stroke, heart attack and aneurysms.
Q. Doesn't the new Medicare law just "privatize" the program?
These new Medicare options don't "privatize" Medicare any more than the program already relies upon private hospitals and physicians in private practices to deliver care. Congress
and the President have enacted changes that give seniors the choice to pick from different health care options.
Private plans that participate in Medicare Advantage will be competing to offer greater quality and value to beneficiaries.
Q. Will employers drop their existing retiree health coverage?
This reform package does a great deal to address a trend that has already been taking place. In 1993, 40% of employers offered health coverage to their Medicare-eligible retirees whereas, in 2003, only 27% of
employers offer retiree coverage. The Medicare legislation offers a helping hand to businesses to continue covering their retirees.
Under the new law, employers will be given financial incentives to
continue offering care to retired employees. The new Medicare also offers a "wraparound" benefit that will allow employers to fold into their retiree coverage the new features of the Medicare
program.
Q. Why can't the government set limits on drug prices?
Any prescription drug plan participating in the Medicare program has a strong financial incentive to aggressively
seek the best prices for medicines. Succeeding in a competitive environment means offering seniors prescription drugs at affordable prices. A government bureaucracy has no such competitive incentive.
In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that government-run health plans will produce less, not more, savings on the cost of drugs. Government price setting will benefit neither seniors nor the millions of Americans whose lives are saved and bettered by new pharmaceutical innovations.
Price controls on prescription drugs will inhibit research and development on new and improved pharmaceuticals.
Q. Why can't we buy drugs from Canada?
Buying cheaper drugs from
foreign countries may seem appealing but the reality is far more dangerous.
Canada may appear to be safe countries from which to purchase medications but many of those drugs are actually manufactured in yet a third country. When drugs are shipped to Canada from other countries and then move into the United States, safety of the medications becomes much more difficult to verify.
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