- Home :
- About ICAN :
- Join Us :
- Job Openings :
- Contact :
Press Release
Advocacy Group Kicks Off Campaign to Change Bush's Part D Disaster and Reveals Cost of Medicare Privatization Scheme to Iowa Seniors and Taxpayers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Date: March 22, 2006
For more information, contact:
Matt Russell, 515-277-5077 (ext 15)
DES MOINES, IA - Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN) announced today the start of the Campaign to Fix the Bush Part D Disaster. ICAN will join a national campaign organized by Americans United. From now through November, ICAN along with their affiliates and allies will be on the ground in Iowa to organize Iowa voters to change this law to benefit seniors, people with disabilities, and Iowa taxpayers.
"This campaign is about demanding good, responsive government," said Matt Russell, organizer with ICAN. "Our government must invest in Iowa's seniors and people with disabilities and not provide handouts to pharmaceutical and insurance companies. We will fight to preserve the effectiveness of traditional Medicare and to roll back this scheme to privatize the most efficient part of our health care system.
"In Traditional Medicare, over 97 cents of every dollar spent, goes directly to providing health care. Under the Part D disaster, we are just starting to see the enormous cost of privatization. Today, we are releasing a report from the Institute for America's Future that puts the cost of Part D's inefficiency to Iowans at $9.2 billion dollars over the next 10 years.
"Trying to figure out our Part D prescription plans has been a real nightmare," said Nancy Nichols, retired school teacher from West Des Moines. "Even now, we aren't for sure what we've signed up for. We finally made a choice and will start with our new coverage April 1. But it does not look like it's going to save us much if any money and in fact has created a lot of anxiety. If the Medicare plan could negotiate with drug companies, we'd have a much better system all the way around. If the drug benefit was delivered through traditional Medicare, it would be so much easier to understand."
"The simplest route would be to include a drug benefit as an add-on to the existing Medicare program," said Russell. "This simple route would save Iowa beneficiaries and taxpayers more than $9.2 billion over the next ten years. Both beneficiaries and taxpayers are paying the price that Part D was written for the interests of pharmaceutical companies instead of American Seniors and people with disabilities."
# # #
Guidling Principles of Health Care Reform
Iowa Human Needs Advocates is a working group of over 30 organizations that advocate in the human services arena. ICAN and IHNA have drafted guiding principles for health care reform in Iowa.
EVENT
RESOURCES
People or Profits: The Game Show
Iowa Human Needs Advocates is a working group of over 30 organizations that advocate in the human services arena. ICAN and IHNA have drafted guiding principles for health care reform in Iowa.
Learn more and take action here, a web site for consumers who want to join the fight for fair prescription drugs prices.
STATEMENT
ICAN organizer Matt Russell addresses committee members regarding the need for prescription drug price relief in Iowa. Read his statement here.
REPORTS
The Excess Cost of the Bush Prescription Drug Plan in Iowa
Learn about how Medicare Part D wastes Iowa taxpayer money and how we can fix this disasterous plan.
Health Care in Iowa: A Continuing Problem of Access
Iowa Policy Project has released this new report on health care access. One in 11 Iowans falls through the cracks of health-care coverage in Iowa, lacking access to health insurance through an employer or through government services – and despite some recent gains, the percentage of Iowans who are uninsured has not improved from the start of the decade.
Medicaid at 40: A Service That Works, For Americans Who Need It
IOWANS FACE RISING DRUG COST BURDEN: Iowa among the states most affected by rising prescription drug costs. Read entire report here.
MEDICARE CAMPAIGN
How will the Bush Medicare Prescription Drug Law affect your budget in 2006? Click here for a month-by-month cost analysis.
To see Important Facts You Need to Know About the Bush Medicare Prescription Law of 2003, click here.
For a fact sheet about The Medicare Prescription Discount Drug Card, click here.
To see how the discount card costs compares unfavorably to VA, Canada, and drugstore.com, click here.
Medicare Worksheet - to estimate what you will have to pay in 2006 for prescription drugs, download and print this worksheet.
NEWS FROM THE ROAD
Medicare Road Show Picks Up Steam in the Midwest, April 13, 2004: Des Moines, Iowa.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT Q & A
The new Medicare law is extremely complicated and extremely politicized. Click here for a question and answer resource from FamiliesUSA that can help you better understand the effects of this law.
HEALTH CARE PRINCIPLES
These principles are the cornerstone of a quality health care system. Any health care proposal must bring us closer to meeting them.
JOINT STATEMENTS
A coalition of groups demands that Senator Grassley protect Medicaid funding. Read the letter here.
Joint statement on the effects of the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003
REPORT
Congress’ Prescription Deal Costs Iowans More and Undermines the Entire Medicare System. Released 11/18/03 by ICAN and the Institute for America's Future. Click here.
FACT SHEETS
The Medicare Part D Disaster: Extend the May 15 Deadline
State Rx for 2005: House File 152
Our Fight for Fair Prescription Drug Prices
Capping Medicaid Funding: How Block Grants Would Hurt States -- Families USA, December 2004
Comparing the Medicare prescription drug proposals: Senate, House, and Conference
Iowa State Prescription Fact Sheet
IN THE NEWS
3/25/06, Des Moines Register: Drug-benefit cost: A whopper
3/22/06, Radio Iowa: Group seeks changes in Medicare prescription drug benefit
09/27/05, Quad City Times: Putting a face on budget plight
09/20/05, Des Moines Register: Hearings planned on cuts to social programs
08/13/05, Quad City Times: Letter to the editor -- Health care coverage still a major concern
08/10/05, Des Moines Register: Editorial -- Everyone deserves health-care coverage
08/04/05, Newsradio 1040 WHO: Medicaid Turns 40
07/16/05, Vilsack touts Medicaid effort as national model to fellow governors
PRESS RELEASES
04/20/06 - Extend the May 15 Deadline to Sign Up for Prescription Drug Benefit
