Seniors Speak: Results of the 2002 Advisor Senior Survey®

Send this article to a friend.

Printer friendly version.

Seniors Speak: Results of the 2002 Advisor Senior Survey®

Enacting a Medicare prescription drug benefit has become a top legislative priority for TREA Senior Citizens League (TSCL) in 2002. For the first year since TSCL began monitoring prescription drug coverage among its members, the majority of you now say you have no prescription drug insurance. The number of you without drug insurance jumped from 36 percent a year ago to 47 percent this year. (In this year's survey, 45 percent have drug insurance and 8 percent did not answer.) Little wonder paying for your prescription drugs as well as health insurance premiums, deductibles and co-payments, topped the list of monthly expenses you say you have the most trouble paying. Creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit also topped the list of legislative action that would be most useful to you right now.

A Medicare prescription drug benefit alone was not your preferred method of making prescription drugs more affordable, however. A majority of you indicated that the government should step in to negotiate better drug prices. Forty-three percent of you said that the best method of making prescription drugs more affordable is to require drug companies to price prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries at the same price as prescriptions available through state Medicaid or veteran's drug programs. On the other hand, only 11 percent said drug prices should be regulated as in Canada and other foreign nations.

While the majority of you continue to rank Notch Reform as TSCL's top legislative and Social Security priority, sky rocketing drug costs coupled with the erosion of insurance coverage has made a Medicare prescription drug benefit TSCL's top Medicare legislative priority for 2002.

To see the complete results of The Social Security & Medicare Advisor's 2002 Senior Survey® click here: http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101504.asp.

Updated 5/21/02.

May 2002