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A happy, healthy, and safe New Year...
A new year should bring hope and promise. As we celebrate the arrival of 2005, Massachusetts’ elders and their advocates have reason to be encouraged but also cautious. We at Elder Services are encouraged to see, on a statewide level, a greater awareness and acceptance of the importance of community-based services combined with an increased understanding of the importance of these community services as a first option for frail elders. We are cautiously optimistic that additional resources may be available to allow more elders the choices to receive more services in the community.
We are also encouraged that the Commonwealth is beginning a pilot housing program called “Caring Homes,” which will provide compensation to eligible caregivers for some of the care they provide in their homes to elder relatives — excluding spouses. This initiative will create additional housing options for elders and relieve some of the financial pressures many caregivers currently encounter.
In 2005, we expect that there will be much discussion regarding the state’s Prescription Advantage Plan and its relationship to the federal Medicare Drug Law, which is scheduled to go into effect in January 2006. The Prescription Advantage Plan is the state-funded insurance plan which enables elders and disabled persons to afford to purchase their prescription medications. The plan is available to elders age 65 or older regardless of income. There are many individuals residing in Berkshire County and throughout the Commonwealth who are unable to afford their prescribed medications and who desperately need the assistance the Prescription Advantage Plan provides. It is essential that some variation of the Prescription Advantage Plan, which provides coverage to 80,000 Massachusetts elders and disabled persons continue to exist to help fill in the coverage gaps in the Medicare Drug Law and ensure that Massachusetts elders will be able to afford the prescription medications they need to remain healthy. Among the gaps in the new Medicare law is the one which occurs at the point where an elder has paid a monthly premium of at least $35 a month ($420 a year), a $250 deductible, and 25% ($500) of the next $2,000, with the new plan paying 75% ($1,500). At this point coverage stops until the elder pays the next $2,850 out of his or her own pocket. The amount that the elder must pay before coverage resumes is called a “donut” because it is a big hole in the middle of the plan. There is a concern that elders who reach the point in the new plan where coverage stops until they pay $2,850, will be forced to miss doses, take half doses, or skip their medications entirely because they can not afford to pay this amount out of their own pockets. This is not acceptable.
We also expect that there will be much discussion regarding the significantly higher cost of prescription medications in the United States compared with Canada, and the desirability of drug re-importation from Canada at a reduced cost. A fundamental question which has not yet been answered to the satisfaction of many elders and elder advocates is why the United States does not yet afford its citizens the same favorable protections as does Canada in regards to the costs of prescription medications, so that medications purchased in the US would be comparable in price to those re-imported from Canada.
Elder citizens have earned the right to be able to live with dignity and should not have to live in fear that they will be unable to afford the prescription medications they need, to adequately heat their homes, or to pay their rent or property taxes. Community-based services should be available when needed so that frail elders can continue to live safely in their own homes. We at Elder Services will continue to address these concerns in 2005. In the meantime, we would like to wish each of you a happy, healthy and safe new year.