[QUAD-L] Fwd: Call on Representatives Bill Thomas and Nancy Johnson to Reauthorize the...

[DAANOO]

Please call the representatives listed below to reauthorize the Q. I. that assists poor, elderly and disabled to pay premiums which will be going up. Dana

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Asclepios               

 

Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update

ACT NOW: Call on Representatives Bill Thomas and Nancy Johnson to Reauthorize the QI Program

October 6, 2005 • Volume 5, Issue 40

 

 

Unless the U.S. House of Representatives acts soon, thousands of older adults and people with disabilities are going to see their health care costs go through the roof.

 

Last Friday, the House of Representatives took the weekend off as a federal program that pays the $78.20 monthly Medicare Part B premiums for low-income Americans expired. The Qualifying Individual program (QI) allows more than 185,000 of the poorest Americans to afford Medicare out-patient health coverage.

 

QI re-authorization was passed with broad bi-partisan support in the Senate. The Bush Administration supports it--in fact it boasted about the program in news releases defending the record premium increases that people with Medicare face come January 1. That’s when premiums jump to $88.50 a month. 

 

To the House leadership, QI is not a priority. We need to ask those men and women, why?

 

If the program dies, the consequences for many of the 185,000 impoverished participants in the program will be catastrophic. With a $13,000 annual income, imagine paying an extra $1,000 a year in health insurance premiums.

 

New questions will take over the lives of American men and women, people living with disabilities, people facing the fears and deprivation of poverty in old age. What is more important: health care for congestive heart failure or buying food at the grocery store? Pay the heating bill or go to the doctor to treat diabetes?

 

Further, the QI program automatically enrolls people in the Administration’s Extra Help Program that pays the out-of-pocket costs of the Medicare drug benefit that will be unaffordable to poor Americans. By failing to reauthorize QI, the House will make it even harder for low-income people with Medicare to fill their prescriptions in 2006.

 

The Senate, led by Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley reauthorized the QI program last week with broad bi-partisan support. Senator Grassley holds broad respect among his constituents in Iowa, and indeed among the American people across the nation, because he remains aware of the realities of human need.

 

The dysfunctional  House of Representatives seemed too occupied last week discussing the criminal indictment of its Majority Leader, Tom Delay, Republican of Texas, to attend to the business of the American people—this from what was once known as the “people’s House.”

 

Today, there are reports that the House leadership may pay attention, and will look to connect QI reauthorization to programs promoting sexual abstinence.

 

Oh my.

 

House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas and the House Ways and Means Committee’s Health Subcommittee Chair Nancy Johnson need to be reminded that now is not the time to let the QI program expire.

 

 

Click here to send an e-mail message or letter telling Representatives Nancy Johnson and Bill Thomas to reauthorize the QI program.

 

 

Medical Record

 

Beginning in January 2006, the Medicare Part B premium will increase 13.2 percent to $88.50 a month ($1,062 annually), up from this year’s monthly premium of $78.20.   Medicare Part B covers services such as doctors’ visits, laboratory tests, and outpatient care. The QI program covers people between 120 to 135 percent of the poverty level, and assets below $4,000 for an individual and $6,000 for a couple in most states (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

 

More than 185,000 low-income people with Medicare are enrolled in the Qualified Individual-1 program that pays for their Medicare Part B premium. A number of states including Connecticut, New York and Mississippi are dangerously close spending more than the federal block grant for the QI program (Medicare Rights Center).

 

Medicare beneficiaries with lower incomes are generally in poorer health than those with higher incomes. While 43 percent of beneficiaries with incomes less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level describe their own health as either fair or poor, only 17 percent of those with incomes above 300 percent of poverty do so. (“Medicare Chart Book,” Kaiser Family Foundation, Summer 2005).

 

Fast Relief: What You Can Do

Let everyone—your colleagues, friends, families—know how we can improve the Medicare prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare and American taxpayers. Help us build a national network of concerned citizens who want to create the Medicare prescription drug benefit Americans deserve.

Click hereto help build a national campaign for a real Medicare prescription drug benefit!

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Don’t Let Your Suffering Go Unnoticed

Are you struggling to pay for your prescriptions drugs or get the health care you need? Work with the Medicare Rights Center to bring your story to the ears of policymakers, the press and the public in an effort to expose the shortcomings of the American health care system. To learn more about how to make your voice heard in the national Medicare debate, visit www.medicarerights.org/maincontenthiddenlives.html.

The Louder Our Voice, the Stronger Our Message

Asclepios—named for the Greek and Roman god of medicine who, acclaimed for his healing abilities, was at one point the most worshipped god in Greece—is a weekly action alert designed to keep you up-to-date with Medicare program and policy issues, and advance advocacy strategies to address them. Please help build awareness of key Medicare consumer issues by forwarding this action alert to your friends and encouraging them to subscribe today.

 

Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of health care information and assistance in the United States for people with Medicare.  A national nonprofit founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care.

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