The New Medicare Drug Plan: Puzzle or Prescription for Health
Location
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Start Date
9-2006 9:00 AM
End Date
29-9-2006 12:00 PM
Description
The new Medicare prescription drug benefit, Medicare Plan D, signed into law by President Bush in 2003, went into effect in January 2006. Some beneficiaries have praised the plan, others have been critical, but perhaps the greatest numbers are simply confused. Those who praised Plan D felt that it broadened coverage and access to benefits; critics, however, charged that, in denying Medicare the right to negotiate favorable prescription rates, it privileged pharmaceutical companies over the elderly and poor, and, finally, many beneficiaries were confused by the Plan’s complexity, especially the “donut” provision that required seniors whose total drug costs reached $2250 to pay 100 percent of the prescription costs until they reach $3600.
On September 29, insurance, medical and legal experts participated in evaluating the Plan's effectiveness in a free public roundtable in the Moot Court Room of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law on East 18 th and Euclid Avenue. The law school has sought permission from the Ohio Supreme Court to offer three free hours of CLE credit for attending the event.
This forum was sponsored by the editorial staff of the law school’s Journal of Law and Health, an interdisciplinary publication examining the crossroads where law and medicine intersect.
Speakers included Douglas Anderson, the Ohio Department of Insurance Executive Counsel; Alice Palmer, MSW, Cleveland Clinic Director of Social Work and Child Life; Stanley Ballou, MD, MetroHealth Rheumatologist, and a representative from the Office of Congressman Sherrod Brown.
The New Medicare Drug Plan: Puzzle or Prescription for Health
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
The new Medicare prescription drug benefit, Medicare Plan D, signed into law by President Bush in 2003, went into effect in January 2006. Some beneficiaries have praised the plan, others have been critical, but perhaps the greatest numbers are simply confused. Those who praised Plan D felt that it broadened coverage and access to benefits; critics, however, charged that, in denying Medicare the right to negotiate favorable prescription rates, it privileged pharmaceutical companies over the elderly and poor, and, finally, many beneficiaries were confused by the Plan’s complexity, especially the “donut” provision that required seniors whose total drug costs reached $2250 to pay 100 percent of the prescription costs until they reach $3600.
On September 29, insurance, medical and legal experts participated in evaluating the Plan's effectiveness in a free public roundtable in the Moot Court Room of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law on East 18 th and Euclid Avenue. The law school has sought permission from the Ohio Supreme Court to offer three free hours of CLE credit for attending the event.
This forum was sponsored by the editorial staff of the law school’s Journal of Law and Health, an interdisciplinary publication examining the crossroads where law and medicine intersect.
Speakers included Douglas Anderson, the Ohio Department of Insurance Executive Counsel; Alice Palmer, MSW, Cleveland Clinic Director of Social Work and Child Life; Stanley Ballou, MD, MetroHealth Rheumatologist, and a representative from the Office of Congressman Sherrod Brown.
Speaker Information
A representative from the office of Congressman Sherrod Brown also spoke.