Which Federal Drug Plan is Right For You? Brought to you by Medicare.gov
You probably think I should ask, “Is the new Federal Prescription Drug program well designed?” or “Why did they create a welfare system for insurance companies?” But I am trying to maintain my focus on Internet politics. Usually, I write about Internet advocacy, but today I am focusing on government services. Specifically, what has the federal government done online to help us navigate the new Drug Plan and its many choices? They have given us Medicare.gov. Medicare.gov, as HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt tells us, is a great site, easy to use. He even set his mom up with her new drug program using it. Sounds great, no?
The New York Times and CNN have both reported that seniors are finding the new Drug Program extremely complicated. With up to 43 different plans administered by a variety of private insurance companies, I would hope that the website would provided some helpful and easy to find resources, especially since the seniors applying for it have only a few days to make a decision.
After reviewing the site, I have concerns for citizens trying to figure this maze of plans out. As I reviewed the site, I asked, “What information will I need to make this decision?
To decide, I need to cross-reference the drugs I take with how much it costs to get covered, for where I live. But the formulary search function on the site only brings up plan identification information, sorted by “Plan Name,” including “Contract ID, “ “Plan ID”, and “Plan Type.” The only valuable piece of information to help you decide is the “# of Network Pharmacies in Your State.” In my state?!?! What about my neighborhood, or my city, or my county… at least! Even the one piece of decision-critical information it offers is at a scale that makes it useless.
On another database offered by Medicare.gov, I can find all of the plans available in my state, and the costs of the plan, but they are sorted by “Contract ID” and don’t list what drugs are covered by the plan.
Now, I could cut and paste the two tables into to separate spreadsheet files, sort them by “Contract ID,” then do a merger of the two files… but I don’t know how to do the merger. OK, I suppose I could figure it out with about a half hour or so of study and practice.
But, could my parents do it? No chance! No way!
Could your parents do it? Could You?
If you want to learn about your options under the new federal Drug Program (even if you aren’t actually old enough to qualify), I encourage you to go to www.medicare.gov and figure out which plan is right for you… without an insurance agent.
Oh, and go check it out soon, because the links to the complicated instruction pages are the most recent postings in the Medicare Spotlights section. I am sure in a few days, those links will be pushed down lower on the page, as new items are spotlighted, and you will have to go hunting for them.
And while you are there, time yourself as you read through the pages of detailed instructions as you try to figure out how to use the site to find the right plan for you. Make sure you have your reading glasses handy, before you start your timer.
On the other hand, we could scrap the new Drug Program, create a new one with one list of covered drugs, create one table of the choices for deductible versus premium costs, and let people figure out what level of coverage they want. If we want to keep the private sector component, we could make the basic, federally subsidized program a required core of any drug plan offered by a private company and let the companies compete with each other by bundling other coverage with the core plan.
There is a fair choice, simplify the plan or upgrade the website. One solution makes for simpler policy; the other makes a complicated policy easier to use. We can leave the debate over which policy is better for another forum.