(Washington D.C.)- As the May 15th Deadline for Medicare beneficiaries to sign-up for the new prescription drug plan has passed, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, today responded to reports that House Republicans may introduce legislation to waive the cash penalty for late enrollment in Medicare Part D, but are not willing to give seniors more time to enroll or switch plans.  Under both current law and the Republican proposals being discussed, seniors who have not yet enrolled would be "locked out" of drug coverage and seniors who have enrolled would be "locked in" to their current plans until January 2007.

"While I'm pleased that some Republicans are finally acknowledging that the deadline is a problem, their proposal shows they still don't understand how confusing and complicated this program is.  Waiving the penalty won't help seniors that are locked into a plan when they find out it has a gaping hole in coverage, and it won't help the million seniors who are now locked out of getting coverage until 2007," warned U.S. Rep. Levin. "Seniors don't just need a waiver of penalties in the future -- they need more time now, and a better designed drug benefit in the future."

By waiving the penalty but not extending the enrollment deadline, the Republican proposal would leave the 1 million seniors that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates would enroll this year blocked from enrolling in the program and without drug coverage until January 2007.  In addition, the proposal also leaves the 9 million seniors who signed up for plans, sometimes based on confusing or incorrect information, locked-in to their current plans, most of which have a gap in coverage seniors will encounter later this year.

A recent GAO investigative study found that many seniors encountered confusion and received incomplete or lack of information when attempting to sign-up or inquire about information about the new drug program. Sixty-percent of questions to the Medicare hotline about which plan would save the most money for a senior taking a particular list of drugs were not answered correctly, twenty-five percent of callers had to wait more than 5 minutes just to talk to someone.
 

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