Healthy Skepticism Library item: 215

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Dodge , C .
Most U.S. Seniors Don't Know Medicare Bill Passed, Survey Shows
Bloomberg News 2004 Jun 26

Full text:

Almost seven in 10 U.S. seniors don’t know the biggest overhaul in four decades for Medicare, the government’s health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, passed and was signed into law, a survey found.

While about two-thirds of seniors reported following the debate on the bill closely, only 15 percent said they understood the prescription-drug law ``very well,’‘ and only 32 percent said they knew it passed, according to the nationwide survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit health-issues group.

The findings underscore the challenge the administration faces in educating seniors about the bill, designed to help older American’s afford prescription drugs, the foundation said. The law, passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in December, introduces benefits for prescription drugs and will cost $395 billion to $534 billion in the next 10 years, according to government estimates.

``The complex nature of the law, with all its nooks and crannies and winners and losers, makes the public education challenge much harder,’‘ Kaiser President Drew Altman said in a statement. ``It will take customized one-on-one assistance to really give beneficiaries meaningful help.’‘

Just 7 percent of adults of all ages said they understood the law very well and 23 percent correctly said it was signed into law, the foundation said.

The poll was conducted by telephone between Feb. 5-8 with a nationally representative sample of 1,201 adults 18 years and older, including 237 adults 65 years and older, was polled. The margin of error is plus or minus 6.7 percentage points for those 65 years and older and plus or minus 3 percentage points for the total sample, Kaiser said.