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The average annual Social Security payment is $11,000, but Medicare-revision plans of presidential nominees Al Gore and George Bush consider prescription costs catastrophic and fully reimburseable only when they reach 36 to 54 per cent of that meager total.
That means the average SSA recipient under those proposals still would have only $583 to $425 a month remaining to pay for food, shelter, utilities and other essentials.
Bush fears (gasp) government price controls on prescription drugs and wants private industry's health-maintenance organizations to run the prescription program.
Gore wants to include prescriptions in the existing government-run Medicare program, where most recipients enroll in fee-for-service medical coverage. Unfortunately, Medicare reimbursements for the same service range wildly from region to region.
Price controls work in Canada and Mexico, where thousands of American seniors now take their prescriptions and pay about 50 per cent less than U.S. prices.
And for-profit HMOs are notorious for dropping Medicare clients and for letting bean counters, not medical physicians, determine medical treatment for members.
Standardized, affordable and subsidized prescription coverage must be offered to all of America's seniors.(10 SEPTEMBER 2000)