Quick Action By Maloney Gets Late SSI Checks Delivered

Infuriated that the Social Security Administration had failed to get checks delivered to 1,700 Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) recipients in her district by the scheduled April 1 date, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney wrote to Commissioner Michael Astrue demanding to know what steps were being taken to assure that the late delivery does not occur again.

Maloney (D- Queens/Manhattan) complained that the SSI recipients are lowincome persons and could ill afford any delays in getting their monthly checks on time.

"Late checks mean that people are unable to pay their rent, their phone bills and their utility bills," she pointed out. "Late checks mean late fees. Worst of all, late checks mean that people who are living on the margin may not be able to buy food or medicine."

Maloney said that even though the Social Security Administration rushed to replace the lost checks, "We simply cannot allow entire neighborhoods to miss timely delivery of SSI checks."

Maloney said that when she learned that SSI checks had not been delivered on April 1 to SSI enrollees in postal ZIP Codes 11101 and 11102, she called the United States Postal Service. An official there told her they had no record of a bulk mailing from SSI to those ZIP Codes.

The lawmaker then reported the situation to Social Security and the replacement checks were quickly issued.

DEMS FAIL ON DRUG NEGOTIATION ISSUE: In last Wednesday's column in this space, we wrote that Democratic lawmakers in Washington were having difficulty in fulfilling last year's campaign promise to pass legislation that would direct federal healthcare officials to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors.

As that week's issue of the Gazette was being distributed, the United States Senate was meeting in Washington. During the meeting, Democrats tried to introduce a bill authorizing drug price negotiations, but it failed to garner the required number of votes to succeed.

In the voting, 49 Democrats and six Republicans voted to place the bill in the hopper, five votes short of the 60 required.

Following the Republicans' success in blocking the bill, a top Democratic priority, the GOP-ers argued that the private insurance companies that operate the government's Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidy program for seniors are already getting sufficient price reductions to lower costs for seniors.

Democrats in the House had already passed a bill which lifted the ban on negotiating prices for Part D with pharmaceutical companies. President George W. Bush had said if the Senate also passed the bill, he would veto it.

Democrats had noted that the Veterans Administration (VA) had been highly successful in negotiating very low prices for the nation's war veterans and felt the same should be done for seniors.