United States Senator Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey came to the Hugh Doyle Senior Center on January 10 to hold a press conference about senior benefits and health insurance reform. Schumer alluded to Lowey’s years in Congress since l980 and continued by saying some of the greatest concerns of seniors in their eighties and nineties was the cost of prescription drugs. Enacted in 2004, the prescription drug plan included a “donut hole” which has consumed many senior’s savings. A Kaiser Foundation study found 15% of seniors stopped taking their medications regularly when they reached this donut hole, either by taking the medications every other day or not taking them. This new benefit covers $500 for donut hole coverage starting January 1, 2011,
In the Hudson Valley 29,000 seniors are affected. Referring to the new health care plan he said Medicare had been due to go broke in seven years, now it will go for nineteen years.
The first point of Nita Lowey was the importance of Medicare in New York State. Extending the life of Medicare and closing the donut hole were important to her. Insurance companies are raising their rates and our elected officials are giving them tough oversight to determine if prescription drug plans are violating the rules of the plan.
In answer to a question Schumer stated this year a doctor that takes Medicare is required to give a free physical. Another question was about the increase in the prescription drug plan’s monthly rates for some seniors and the lack of coverage for certain medications. Were these increases related to the extra money given to other seniors for the $500 extra for the donut hole contribution? There was a question about the equity of the last year’s $250 for seniors and how it was distributed. When immigration concerns were raised, the immigration bill presently proposed was cited which would use national guard and drones (planes) at the border and also place heavy fines on employers who hire illegals.
Concern was expressed about the shootings in Arizona. Florence Helfand asked about how we could get better gun control and was answered that perhaps the Brady Law needed to be tightened.
