[News-releases] Medicare Prescription Drug Bill: A Bad Deal forWomen

NOW Press Office
202-628-8669 Rebecca Farmer, x 116
202-785-8576 (fax) 

Medicare Prescription Drug Bill: A Bad Deal for Women

"Senior women should not be fooled about the GOP-led Medicare prescription
drug benefit proposal," National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim
Gandy warned. "It's a deceptive offer that will actually cause some seniors
to lose coverage and could result in much higher drug prices in the long
run. Senior women deserve better."

The conference agreement for H.R. 1, the so-called Medicare Prescription
Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, was released yesterday,
amidst a firestorm of controversy among senior groups, labor unions and
other progressive organizations. Most of the Democratic congressional
leadership opposes the legislation, including nearly all the presidential
candidates. It is rumored that the legislation will  be pushed through
Congress in the next few days, while most Congressmembers have not had
adequate time to study the 1,100 page document. NOW joins 200 other women's
organizations, with collectively ten million members, all part of the
National Council for Women's Organizations, in opposing this harmful
legislation.

"Lawmakers' promise to seniors that a more generous prescription drug
benefit would be theirs--if only they would abandon the guaranteed Medicare
program that has served them well for decades and move to a risky managed
care private insurance plan--is clearly a bad deal," Gandy said.

"Plus, the removal of authority from the federal government to negotiate
lower drug prices means that prices will continue to escalate. U.S.
Consumers already pay the highest prices in the world for prescription
medications while many other nations regulate the cost of drugs," Gandy
said. "For older women, who generally use more prescription medication than
men and who have less income, on average, than senior men, the Medicare
conference agreement means additional
hardship."

"Even more outrageous is the reduced coverage for low-income and disabled
persons under new restrictions for 'dual eligibles' who have been covered
by both Medicare and Medicaid," Gandy. "I can't imagine what lawmakers were
thinking when they made these changes that will unquestionably harm our
parents and grandparents."

"NOW activists across the country oppose this plan which, if enacted, would
begin to dismantle Medicare," Gandy said. "Forcing Medicare to compete with
government-subsidized private programs--which would draw healthier and
wealthier seniors while leaving older and sicker seniors in traditional
Medicare--is the beginning of the end, because premiums would spiral upwards.
The final blow for Medicare would be the proposed 'cost-containment' caps
that would squeeze the program dry, forcing deep cuts and leading to a
fatal fiscal crisis."

    
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