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With Republican presidential candidates attacking President Barack Obama's plans for Medicare, the administration is on the offensive to reassure seniors, sending Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the road to tout the program.
She'll be in Tampa and Orlando today, as her department releases new figures showing that Medicare beneficiaries saved $2.1 billion last year through a provision in the federal health reform law meant to close the so-called doughnut hole in their prescription drug coverage.
Seniors in the coverage gap got a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs. That saved 240,000 Floridians $141.9 million last year, the new figures show.
On a conference call Wednesday with reporters, Sebelius said the popular managed-care option for seniors, Medicare Advantage, is "stronger than ever,'' despite government cuts to insurers that had opponents of the plan crying foul. New government figures show that average premiums are down and enrollment is up.
The news comes as Republican candidates, particularly frontrunner Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, continue to hammer the president's health reform law and its impact on Medicare.
Romney has said Obama was the only president to ever cut Medicare (a statement ruled false by PolitiFact, the fact-checking website of the Tampa Bay Times). And Santorum warned Florida's seniors Monday that the health law would limit their access to doctors and dollars.
Though Sebelius has not addressed such criticisms directly, she has actively touted the law with the public and the media and on TV programs such as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.
While the Obama-backed Affordable Care Act reduces future Medicare spending by about $500 billion over 10 years, Sebelius and others say care for seniors will be helped, not hurt, by the law.
How can that be? Supporters say there is evidence that Medicare often is overbilled for services that weren't truly needed. The biggest spending reduction — $220 billion — will come by reducing annual increases in Medicare payments to health care providers.
Protection from the hated doughnut hole — which affects seniors after they've spent more than $2,830 but less than $6,440 on prescription drugs — will increase, Sebelius said. The discount will grow steadily until 2020, when it reaches 75 percent. That effectively closes the gap, since members pay 25 percent of drug costs before reaching their initial coverage limit.
Medicare Advantage, which is administered by private insurers, has been criticized because it costs the government more per recipient than traditional Medicare. Last year, the government reduced payments to insurers. Yet average monthly premiums have gone down (from $33.97 last year to $31.54 this year), while enrollment has risen (from 11.7 million last year to 12.8 million this year).
"Many people raise fears over and over again that under the Affordable Care Act, beneficiaries would see their Medicare Advantage options shrink and their premiums rise," Sebelius said. "Instead, we are seeing just the opposite."
Richard Martin can be reached at rmartin@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3322.
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