Senior Spotlight
Project Another Hike In Medicare Premium Next Year

A report out of Washington last week says that seniors will face another increase in their Medicare premium next year, bringing the new monthly outlay close to $100.

According to an Associated Press report, the present monthly premium of $88.50 will shoot up about 11.2 percent to $98.40 in the government's projections.

The increased premium will come about because of greater care being provided under the nation's healthcare plan, according to Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

McClellan explained that doctors in the program are increasingly utilizing such new scientific tools as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), physical therapy, lab tests and physician administered drugs. This keeps the payments to doctors from Medicare at a high level and the new higher premium will pay for it.

Actually, there's talk of cutting doctor's fees slightly next year, but many analysts think Congress will not go through with it.

PATAKI SAYS 'NO' TO QUEENS/NASSAU BUS RIDES: Governor George Pataki has vetoed a bill that would have allowed seniors and the disabled to use free bus services from Queens into Nassau and vice versa for doctor's visits.

Assemblymember Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck), sponsor of the bill, criticized the governor's action, declaring: "It is ridiculous for transportation services for seniors and the disabled to stop at the county line. It is inconvenient and unsafe for disabled passengers to exit at the county line, cross a major thoroughfare and wait for another vehicle. This bill would rectify a longstanding problem."

Under Weprin's bill, the intercounty service would operate within a 5-mile radius for Access-A-Ride and Able-Ride bus services. Both are free to seniors living in Queens and Nassau, respectively, who cannot use mass transit.

Under present regulations, which Weprin's bill would have changed, neither service can cross the county line. This causes tremendous hardship for many people who need to visit doctors or family members located just a short distance from the county line, Weprin said.

He also pointed out that the area near the county line has one of the highest concentrations of seniors in all of New York state and there are many doctors' offices, hospitals and other destinations which serve this special population.

"I am angered that the governor failed to listen to the thousands of seniors who truly need the service that the bill would have provided. I will continue to fight to get this bill signed into law, even if it happens next year with a new governor in office," Weprin declared.

It's expected Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, is going to win the election and become the state's next governor in November.

AARP PUSH FOR LOWER PRICED DRUGS: AARP State Director Lois Aronstein announced in a news release that the senior advocacy group intends to continue its campaign in Albany for more affordable prescription drugs in hopes of getting the state senate to vote for passage of a bill that will bring lower prices about. The Assembly already approved the measure.

Aronstein, hoping to enlist seniors' and the publics' aid in getting the bill passed, asks that those groups call Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno at 800-700-6469 and urge him to support the two-bill package. The senate is expected to return to Albany later this year, the AARP official said.

Explaining the two bills, Aronstein said one would require public reporting of gifts to doctors from pharmaceutical manufacturers, which total billions of dollars a year; the other would allow New York state and others to buy drugs from drug companies and pass along some of the savings in the form of an Rx discount card for all New Yorkers who have trouble affording their medications.

Aronstein said that "more drug lobbyists than you can count had concentrated their efforts on the senate before the budget was passed, and blocked passage of the two bills. They did this by introducing a bill with giant loopholes that would allow drug companies to give a whole host of lavish gifts to doctors without reporting them, nor would it disclose which doctor is getting the gift."

In order to give the latter bill an airing, the senate decided to take no action on it or the two earlier bills.