Few seniors ready to enroll in drug plan

WASHINGTON — Bewildered by the complexity of the new Medicare outpatient prescription-drug benefit, senior citizens will not be rushing to sign up, according to a survey released Thursday as open enrollment draws near.

Although the government has spent more than $250 million to promote the benefit, only 20 percent of seniors have made up their minds to enroll, the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found.

An additional 37 percent said they would not sign up, while 43 percent said they had not decided what to do. The open enrollment runs Tuesday to May 15. Coverage begins Jan. 1.

If the doubts harden into disdain, that could force major changes to one of President Bush's top domestic-policy accomplishments.

"The potential is grim," acknowledged John Rother, policy director of AARP, the senior-citizens lobby, which lent critical support in winning congressional approval of the program.

"If only 20 percent or even 30 percent of seniors sign up, that is very negative for the future of the program, because the people most likely to sign up are the people with high drug expenses, and you don't have insurance if you don't spread the risk among people who are healthy," Rother explained.

The government has estimated about two-thirds of seniors will sign up in the first year of the benefit. But many appear to be stumped. There is "almost paralysis over what to do," said Maryann Brodie, polling director for Kaiser, which has co-sponsored nine such surveys on seniors' attitudes toward the new benefit.

Information

For an online list of state counselors who can help select a Medicare drug plan, go to:

www.healthassistancepartnership.org and click on "Medicare" in the left-hand column. Then click on "State Health Insurance Programs."

Many are confused by having to pick among dozens of private prescription plans that will be offering the government-subsidized benefit in each state, the survey found. Others who may have drug coverage through a former employer or who purchase it on their own are not sure how to evaluate the costs and benefits of switching.

Those who delay beyond May 15 could face a penalty in the form of higher premiums in subsequent years.

"Beneficiaries are having a difficult time answering the most-important question: 'What does it mean for me?' " said Drew Altman, president of Kaiser, a nonprofit organization that conducts health-care research.

Indeed, in the Kaiser survey, 61 percent of seniors said they understood the new benefit "not too well" or "not well at all." Only 35 percent thought they knew it "very well" or "somewhat well."

Nearly 3 in 4 of the respondents thought the number of choices "makes it confusing and difficult to pick the best plan," the survey found.

Medicare provides coverage for hospital care and doctor visits to more than 42 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries, but until now the program has not paid for outpatient prescriptions.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said it was too early to make predictions about the success or failure of the drug plan.

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.