Annuitization Bill Introduced In Congress

Above $3,700 in drug expenditures, Medicare would pay 90%.

The plan would rely on private insurers to provide coverage and bear a portion of the financial risk.

Insurers could use a variety of cost control methods to keep prices affordable, including selective contracting with drug providers and mail order pharmacies.

Coverage would be available through the traditional fee-for-service plan and the managed care plan, which will be called Medicare Advantage.

Bush says that the House of Representatives will take up the issue in the coming weeks.

He adds that the new benefit is vital to maintain the viability of Medicare.

“Because seniors dont have drug coverage for prescription drugs and preventive care, we are creating a health care system that is more expensive and less effective,” Bush says.

Scott P. Serota, president of the Washington-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, praises the effort to enact a Medicare drug benefit.

“Prescription drugs are a critical benefit for Americas seniors, and we are encouraged that the Senate has taken positive steps to provide much-needed coverage,” Serota says.

In other health news, life and health insurers participated in a public event last week aimed at increasing public support for legislation creating an above-the-line deduction for the purchase of long term care insurance.

The Capitol Hill event was tied to Fathers Day, and the release of a study sponsored by MetLife, Inc., New York, which reported that contrary to many perceptions, men are just as likely as women to be caregivers to a chronically ill relative.

The legislation insurers are supporting, H.R. 2096, is sponsored by Reps. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., and Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.

Johnson says that men are the “silent caregivers” in the current long term care crisis.

“While the huge contributions of mothers and daughters to their families in this regard has long been recognized, we cannot ignore that working men are caregivers who also want to assure the financial security of their families,” she says.

The MetLife study found that the majority of both men and women caregivers report they needed to modify their work schedules and miss some work as a result of caregiving.

Finally, the House of Representatives was expected at press time to pass legislation reforming the nations class-action civil justice system.

The legislation, which is strongly backed by the insurance industry, would have major national class actions heard in federal courts instead of state courts.

It would prevent so-called “forum shopping” in which plaintiffs manipulate their complaints to allow them to be filed in local courts that business groups believe are biased.

For an update on the expected House action, see National Underwriters Web site at www.nationalunderwriter.com.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, June 16, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.