Secretary of Health visits to tout prescription drug coverage

The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services was in Iowa today (Thursday), encouraging seniors to sign up for the prescription drug coverage now available through Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for the elderly. “They’ll save money. It’ll keep ’em healthy and they’ll no longer have to worry about having their savings eroded,” Secretary Mike Leavitt says. Leavitt says the benefit, which kicks in January 1st, is the most important thing to happen in health care in 40 years. He told a group of seniors gathered at Des Moines University that every one of them should sign up. Leavitt says it’s not “being done on the cheap” because the prescription drug benefit is a shift toward keeping elderly people healthy and at home rather than just using prescriptions as drugs to help the ill become well. “This is a profound national investment in better health care,” Leavitt says. Low income seniors will get the benefit for free, others will pay a premium. Leavitt says the average monthly premium will be around $32. Leavitt says competition will force down the cost of the prescription drug plans. “I believe that there will be plans that are very inexpensive here in Iowa,” Leavitt says. Leavitt says he sees no reason why folks should not be able to sort through the various plans available and choose one by the May 15, 2006 deadline. After that date, premium costs will go up. Leavitt says he’s met many elderly Americans who worry about their prescription costs. “I met a woman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who said ‘I have to choose between my eye drops and my water bill,'” he says. “That won’t be true any longer because it will save her money. It will take away from an entire generation the worry that their savings could be wiped out because of a prescription drug cost.”