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7A NEWS/tSljlt diarlottt $ot Thursday, January 8, 2004 ittl Medicare plan makes fuiUier separates rich and peer By James Wright MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN- MINNEAPOLIS President Bush recently signed into law the most sweeping changes in the Medicare program since its inception, which, if not altered, will significantly change how we care for our senior citizens from now on. When the new legislation is enacted, beginning in 2006, older Americans will be faced with a dramatically different way of paying for their health" care, while younger Americans will be left to wonder what the future holds for their eventu al retirement. The Bush administration and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) have been publicly heralding the changes as, in the words of AARP CEO William Novelli, ‘’an important milestone in the nation’s commitment to strengthen and expand health security for older Americans.” Critics, on the other hand, have been denouncing the changes as - undermining the traditional purpose of Medicare. What is clear is that for African-American seniors - six in 10 of whom live below or near the federal poverty level - the new legislation contains a fair share of potential pitfalls. Parsing through the mam moth document is no trivial task, which is why so few of the claims made by support ers are challenged in public forums. U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo, a Democrat who voted . against the bill, described it as “a large, complicated, very confusing bill...it’s hard to know how it will be imple mented.” The bill is simply too tremendous in size and Byzantine in its language for the average senior citizen to determine its true effects. Novelli says his primary reason for supporting the bill is because "it will provide important prescription drug coverage and financial relief for millions of current and future Medicare beneficia- However, a thorough read ing of the bill suggests that African-American seniors may wind up with less cover age than they currently have. Under the current sys tem, low-income seniors qualify for Medicaid to help defray drug costs. Under the new law, seniors who opt into Medicare would be dropped from Medicaid’s cov erage of prescription drugs. While the AARP stresses that the new plan is volun tary, they neglect to mention a few “voluntary” caveats. While seniors do not neces sarily have to sign up for the new coverage, if they do not sign up within the first six months of the enrollment period, a premium penalty will be added of at least 1 percent per month after that initial period. Once inside the system, seniors will pay an estimat ed $35 monthly premium, and an annual $250 deductible. These figures are estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to rise to $53 and $445 respectively over eight years. Medicare mandates that 25 percent of the cost of drugs up to $2,250 will be covered. Then, for annual drug costs between $2,250 and $5,100, the beneficiary will pay 100 percent of the costs. Simply put, poor seniors may pay more under the new law than they did under the former system, because they must now spend $3,600 in annual drug costs before the substantial parts of the Medicare coverage begin. Minnesota Medicaid Director Mary Kennedy said, “People below 150 per cent of poverty will get a pretty good benefit, but you not only have to be low- income, but there’s also an asset test, which is an unusual feature. You have to have assets, which are rela tively low. The issue is that for people above 150 percent of poverty, the benefit will be disappointing.” In addition, seniors are forced to first evaluate pri vate HMOs in their area for their Medicare coverage. The federal government is providing over $14 billion in incentives to HMOs to cover seniors under the new Medicare rules. This money is in addition to the money paid by the seniors in monthly payments, deductibles, and of course, standard health care costs. “These policies currently don’t exist,” noted Sabo, “I called all over looking to find where to go to get a policy, and they haven’t been writ ten yet.” The incentives are to entice insurance compa nies to create the plans for seniors to buy. Seniors who might have bought Medigap coverage under private insurers in order to pay for medicines and treatments not covered in their providers’ formula ries (list of covered drugs) will now be unable to do so because private insurers are strictly forbidden from sell ing supplemental insurance. The effect of this will be that seniors will have to closely evaluate each provider’s for mulary before committing to a plan. ‘You’ll see more marketing from HMOs and insurance companies of drug benefits. Consumers are going to have to do a lot of research,” said Kennedy, the Minnesota Medicaid official. Under the new law, seniors are only allowed to change plans once per year, during a specific enrollment period. If the plan a senior chooses does not cover required med ication, that person cannot move to another provider. Instead, he or she must pay full price for non-covered prescriptions. It is important also to note that no provisions were made to contain the costs of drugs. Drug costs will con tinue to rise, and as they do, consumers wiU be required to -pay more for their Medicare drug benefits. For example, the CBO estimates that by 2013, consumers will go from having to pay $3,600 to nearly $5,000 for their required share, as drug costs wiU also be projected to rise during that time. “There were provisions in the original bill that would Family: Move Malcolm’s grandson By Hazel Trice Edney NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON - The lawyer and family of Malcolm Shabazz, the 19- year-old grandson of civil rights martyr Malcolm X, say they are requesting that he be transferred out of an upstate New York prison after he was allegedly beaten and harassed by prison guards, “We have investigated it to the extent that we are able and we’ve concluded that there was an assault on Malcolm by prison guards,” says Ron Kuby, the New York City lawyer represent ing Malcolm. “What people need to understand is that this is happening to Malcolm Shabazz because of who this young man is...It seems fair ly clear that a number of White corrections officers view Malcolm with great hostility because of his Islamic faith, his heritage, and the fact that he’s within their grasp. It has been a persistent problem, but this is the worst that it’s been to date.” Kuby has sent a letter to Glenn S. Goord, commission er of the New York Department of Correctional Services, asking that Malcolm be transferred out of Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a max imum-security facility, five hours from New York City, to a lower security facility clos er to home. “I think Malcolm would profit from more extensive interaction with his family,” the December 22 letter from the lawyer states. ‘We are looking towards the possibil ity of placing him in an out- of-state residential educa tional program that has achieved remarkable results with troubled youth.” Malcolm’s aunt, Ilyasah Shabazz, of PeekskiU, N.Y, the daughter of Malcolm X, with whom the teenager lived for much of his life, says she visited him the day after Christmas. “I saw his lip was busted and a lot of his arm had like punch marks and then scratches and stuff...He was beaten up. He was beaten up,” Shabazz said. Shabazz and Kuby say the injuries are not serious, but Jobs, education top concerns Continued from page 3A Mississippi., says the GOP faces an uphill battle. “The Republican Party is going to have to build up some credibility in the black commu nity and quite frankly, most Republicans don’t have credibility in the black communi ty,” says McLemore. “They have not had a consistent policy dealing with the African American community, so this is a kind of hit and miss operation.” Campbell says the Unity ‘04 campaign goal is to increase the black vote to at least 5 per cent higher than the 53.5 percent of the The nine Democratic presidential candi dates have participated in a string of debates, but have largely focused on foreign affairs, such as the war. Campbell says Unity ‘04 will hold issue forums, town hall meetings and candidate debates with specific focus on issues that black voters want to hear. have helped to control drug cost,” said Sabo, “...without them, it jeopardizes future sustainability.” The pharmaceutical indus try lobbied very hard to pre vent any sort of price con trols or to allow negotiation of lower prices. In 2003 alone, they spent $79 million on federal advocacy, and there are now six drug lob byists for every senator in Washington. While the Medicare discus sion has focused on seniors, attention should be paid to a little-discussed provision detailing how Medicare will be financed. Currently, Medicare is financed from payroll taxes, premiums paid by beneficiaries, and general tax revenues. Under the new provision, if Medicare managers deter mine that general revenues account for more than 45 percent of the total cost. Congress is required by law to either cut benefits or raise payroll taxes. Payroll taxes are dispro portionately paid by the poor and middle class, so as drug costs continue to skyrocket, it is reasonable to assume that the long-term solvency of Medicare itself will be dif ficult to sustain, as the brunt of its costs wili be borne by those least able to afford it. In an overhaul of a federal program of this magnitude, one can expect winners and losers. Further, when tinker ing with federal entitle ments, the first product of efforts is often, as the AARP puts it ‘’not perfect.” What is striking about this legislation, however, is the degree to which those who are supposed to benefit from it tend, on balance, to come out poorer in the end. Indeed, pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, and health care providers benefit far more than most senior citizens, especially African- Americans who rely dispro portionately on Medicare. While the AARP suggests that this is ‘’a good start,” it is left to seniors to wonder what the end wiU be. 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Get a Career in Broadcasting News Sports Recording Studio Video Photography Computer Graphics Web Page TV and More! - Scholarships -Financial Assistance - ...Now Enrolling!. After School Program - Elementary & Middle School Students - Home Work Assistance Building Self-Esteem Success Skills (improving grades) Meeting Each Student’s Needs Qualified Teachers Make Learning Fun For Ml Ages Call Today, Spaces Limited! the harassment has been consistent. “They’re trying to break his spirit,” Shabazz charges. “He has become more and more focused. He has used the time there very wisely, with the reading and going deeply -inside of himself, becoming spiritually grounded and trying to understand who he is and what everything is around him.” The teenager, convicted of second-degree attempted robbery in Middletown, N.Y., has been serving a three- and-a-half year sentence at Great Meadow. The attempt ed robbery arrest came five years after he confessed to setting the 1997 fire that killed his 61-year-old grand mother Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s wife, in her Yonkers, N.Y. apartment. Then 12, young Malcolm pled guilty to setting the blaze and served four years in several juvenile institu tions. He says he never meant to hurt his grand mother. Linda Foglia, a spokes woman for Great Meadow, denies that Malcolm was beaten. y'oa are corclialhj inmtecl to ffin Evening of Stars 25"'^Anniversary Tribute to Tqu I^avvls Yolanda Adams Donnie McClurkin Chaka Khan Stevie Wonder a Celebration Of Educational Excellence Benefiting The United Negro College Fund Ai-so featuring: Smokie Noiipul Mo’Nique Musiq The O’Jays Debbie Allen Wayne Brady turnout in 2000. According to the NCBCP, the black vote has not been at 58.5 percent since 1964, the year that Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which expanded the federal gov ernment’s role in protecting the rights of blacks and other people of color. Quincy Jones Patti LaBelle Vivian Green Shfmar Moore Geraid Leveri An Evening OF Stars Fred Hammond Shirley Caesar Marilyn McCoo Sc Billy Davis, jk. Jayne Kennedy ANO MANY MORE.... No RSVP NECESSARY Tune injanuanj 9 on WBTV CS-S' Channel S at 9 p.m. /Ik m Pledge Your Support In Advance! i 800-527-5222 www.uncf.org Our special thanks to: AT&T O JPMorganChase ^ Prudential > Financial ©TARGET TOYOTA
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