Officials Say Wait to Get Medicare Card

[Snazzy]

Officials Say Wait to Get Medicare Card

May 3, 9:06 PM (ET)

By TARA BURGHART


YORKVILLE, Ill. (AP) - Norma Yeates, looking for a way to shave her husband's $385-a-month prescription drug bill, learned she has a lot of homework ahead before signing up for one of the new Medicare discount cards. As the Bush administration heralded the opening of enrollment for the cards on Monday, it added a cautionary note to Yeates and others: Don't sign up just yet.

Yeates, 70, walked away with a thick stack of brochures describing her choices after she and 200 other elderly patients met at a forum here with House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Medicare chief Mark McClellan. Her next move is to draw up a detailed chart to help figure out which one of 47 discount cards will save the Naperville, Ill., couple the most money.

...

The atmosphere of the question-and-answer session turned frosty when Carol Applebaugh, 67, stood up in the audience and said she could find no cost savings on several popular drugs in her research through Medicare's Web site.

"All we asked for was affordable prescription drugs. What we got was a $500 billion boondoggle," she said, referring to last year's Medicare overhaul.

....

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040504/D82BEPD00.html



Caption:
Carol Applebaugh of Aurora, Ill., addresses comments on the confusion of the new Medicare-approved discount card plan to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Dr. Mark McClellan chief Administrator Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during a meeting Hastert sponsored to answer questions about the new prescription drug cards at the Kendal County Senior Center in Yorkville, Ill, Monday, May 3, 2004. Today is the first day senior citizens can begin signing up for the Medicare-approved discount cards, which could help some seniors save up to 40 percent on their monthly drug bills. (AP Photo/Stephen J. Carrera)

[nosmokes]

1. it's a sham, and a poor one at that.

it's like they don't even try and disguise the fact they're screwing you over.

existing discount cards available from the manufacturers and online pharmacies (canadian/european) can get you the meds for the same price or less than what the medicare cards can from what my quick research showed. and once you pick a card you're locked in for a year, but they can change their prices weekly.