Senior citizens flock to Oklahoma statehouse

Monday, March 22nd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Hundreds of senior citizens descended on the State Capitol Monday to learn about the latest legislative developments on health care and present their concerns to lawmakers.

Among the most significant new changes facing seniors across the country is the transition to the new Medicare options that were approved last year by Congress.

Richard Ingham, who works for the Department of Human Services' Aging Services division, said new Medicare-approved drug discount cards will be available June 1. Eligible seniors can begin applying as early as May 1, and Ingham said it's important for people to be armed with information on the new system.

"They will have to do their homework to see if a certain card covers the drugs that they need ... and whether or not the cards are accepted at their local drug store," Ingham said. "Beyond that, we want people to understand some of the structural problems in the Medicare law."

The drug discount cards will be used until a Medicare prescription drug benefit starts in 2006. Under that new system, participants will choose a prescription drug plan and pay about $420 in annual premiums, as well as a $250 deductible. Medicare will then cover 75 percent of the costs between $250 and $2,250.

A potential problem, Ingham said, is that consumers will be forced to pay 100 percent of the drug costs above $2,250 until they reach a $5,100 threshold.

"That $2,850 gap is the 'donut-hole' that you have to pay out of pocket," Ingham said. "I would simply suggest that this is going to be extremely difficult for a lot of people to cover."

Mary Connelly is the site manager for the Wade-Albany Senior Center, a nutrition center that serves meals to about 25 seniors each day in the small southeast Oklahoma town of Albany. Connelly said the rising cost of health care and prescription drugs is a common concern among seniors there.

"They want to know why Canada's prescription prices are so much cheaper than ours," she said.

Dr. Peter Budetti, chair of the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, said part of the reason for the high cost of health care in the United States is the growing amount of paperwork required at every level of the system.

"When I look at what we've ended up with in health care, we've ended up with an awfully expensive, awfully complicated system that leaves a lot of people out," he said.

Budetti said a system of universal health care coverage for all citizens would ultimately lead to a more simplified, less expensive system.

"If we could lower the amount of administrative costs that are in the system and simplify the system so that people didn't have to spend their retirement years trying to deal with it ... we could save a lot of money."

Participants in Monday's forum at the Capitol also heard from Secretary of State Susan Savage, who touted Gov. Brad Henry's health care initiative that calls for a public vote on a proposed cigarette tax increase. That plan would provide an estimated $130 million in new revenue for the state that would be used to provide health insurance for uninsured Oklahomans, build a cancer research center and improve trauma care in the state.

"We simply cannot have these things in our state if we don't find some means with which to pay for them," Savage said.