Empowered at Home Act Introduced
Cosponsors Needed
August 4, 2008: The Empowered at Home Act, S. 3327, would increase the number of older adults and people with disabilities who are eligible for Medicaid coverage for adult day services and home care. Just introduced by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and John Kerry (D-MA), it now needs more cosponsors to move it forward in the Senate.
The legislation strengthens the Medicaid home and community-based state plan option under Section 1915(i) waivers by making income eligibility standards the same for Medicaid coverage of home- and community-based services and institutional care (300% of SSI). Limitations on the scope of services allowable under 1915(i) waivers would disappear, and states would no longer be able to limit the number of individuals eligible for home and community-based services. A new 1915(k) waiver would concentrate services and funding for individuals who are high risk of institutionalization. State grants also would be available for consumer-directed care. We are especially pleased that the bill promotes and protects community living with spousal impoverishment protections for home- and community-based services recipients.
Please urge your senators to sign onto this legislation to make home- and community-based services more available under the Medicaid program.
Take Action Now!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Fannie was created during the depths of the Great Depression, and Freddie in 1970, to help make mortgages more affordable for homeowners. The companies buy billions of dollars in mortgages each month from commercial lenders. Some are sold to investors as mortgage-backed securities; others are held by the companies in their own investment portfolios.
The plan represents a cease-fire in a decades-long ideological battle over the proper role of the companies. Free-market conservatives see the companies as extensions of “big government,” while Democrats have protected them as the main vehicle to promote affordable housing for middle- and lower-income people.
The plan represents a cease-fire in a decades-long ideological battle over the proper role of the companies. Free-market conservatives see the companies as extensions of “big government,” while Democrats have protected them as the main vehicle to promote affordable housing for middle- and lower-income people.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
MEDICARE PROBLEM DONUT HOLE
September 2, 2008
Editorial
Medicare’s Troubling Drug Gap
Probably no aspect of the new Medicare drug program has caused more confusion and irritation than the notorious “doughnut hole,” a gap in coverage that forces people who had been getting their drugs cheaply to suddenly pay the full price out of pocket. Now, for the first time, an analysis has quantified what happened last year when millions of beneficiaries fell into the gap. For patients with serious chronic conditions, the medical implications were very troubling.
Congress crafted the “doughnut hole” to limit federal spending on the drug benefit. Beneficiaries pay only deductibles and co-payments, with the rest covered by their insurance plan, until their drug purchases reach a specified limit. Last year, the gap began when beneficiaries purchased $2,400 worth of drugs. Then they fell into the doughnut hole and had to pay the full cost until their out-of-pocket spending reached $3,850, at which point they qualified for catastrophic coverage.
Last year, an estimated 3.4 million beneficiaries reached the coverage gap, according to a study by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation, Georgetown University and the National Opinion Research Center, or NORC, at the University of Chicago. Beneficiaries taking drugs to treat such chronic conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis and high blood pressure were especially likely to reach the gap.
What’s disturbing is that 15 percent of the beneficiaries taking drugs in eight categories said they stopped taking their medications when they reached the gap. Another 1 percent reduced their use by skipping doses, and 5 percent switched to another drug that was cheaper but might or might not be as effective.
For the 10 percent of diabetics who stopped taking their medication after reaching the gap, the health consequences could be immediate and serious. For those with high cholesterol or osteoporosis, the harm could take longer to show up but could still be serious.
There is no easy solution short of increasing federal spending or finding a way to drive down the cost of drugs. The program has helped millions of older Americans. The next administration and Congress will have to revisit the wisdom and need for the gap.
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Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Editorial
Medicare’s Troubling Drug Gap
Probably no aspect of the new Medicare drug program has caused more confusion and irritation than the notorious “doughnut hole,” a gap in coverage that forces people who had been getting their drugs cheaply to suddenly pay the full price out of pocket. Now, for the first time, an analysis has quantified what happened last year when millions of beneficiaries fell into the gap. For patients with serious chronic conditions, the medical implications were very troubling.
Congress crafted the “doughnut hole” to limit federal spending on the drug benefit. Beneficiaries pay only deductibles and co-payments, with the rest covered by their insurance plan, until their drug purchases reach a specified limit. Last year, the gap began when beneficiaries purchased $2,400 worth of drugs. Then they fell into the doughnut hole and had to pay the full cost until their out-of-pocket spending reached $3,850, at which point they qualified for catastrophic coverage.
Last year, an estimated 3.4 million beneficiaries reached the coverage gap, according to a study by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation, Georgetown University and the National Opinion Research Center, or NORC, at the University of Chicago. Beneficiaries taking drugs to treat such chronic conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis and high blood pressure were especially likely to reach the gap.
What’s disturbing is that 15 percent of the beneficiaries taking drugs in eight categories said they stopped taking their medications when they reached the gap. Another 1 percent reduced their use by skipping doses, and 5 percent switched to another drug that was cheaper but might or might not be as effective.
For the 10 percent of diabetics who stopped taking their medication after reaching the gap, the health consequences could be immediate and serious. For those with high cholesterol or osteoporosis, the harm could take longer to show up but could still be serious.
There is no easy solution short of increasing federal spending or finding a way to drive down the cost of drugs. The program has helped millions of older Americans. The next administration and Congress will have to revisit the wisdom and need for the gap.
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Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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