Alabama Residents Support Addition of Drug Benefit to Medicare, Poll Says

About 90% of Alabama residents support a prescription drug benefit under Medicare, according to a three-day telephone survey of 441 adults, the Mobile Register reports. According to the survey, conducted last week by the Register and the University of South Alabama, more than 75% of respondents said that Medicare, not private insurance companies, should administer a prescription drug benefit for seniors, and many said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to cover the cost. The survey also found that two-thirds of respondents support a universal Medicare prescription drug benefit, rather than a benefit that covers only low-income seniors. Sister Judith Smits, director of a Mobile, Ala., service center of Catholic Social Services, said that the survey results indicate "a realization that there are a lot of people who don't have personal health insurance." However, Congress has remained "deadlocked" over questions about the structure of a Medicare prescription drug benefit. Most Republicans support a proposal that would allow seniors to purchase prescriptions directly from private insurance companies, but many Democrats favor a proposal that would add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare (Reilly, Mobile Register, 12/15). The House this summer passed a GOP-sponsored Medicare reform bill that included a prescription drug benefit, but the Senate failed four times to pass similar legislation. The Bush administration next year may offer a proposal under which the federal government would encourage Medicare beneficiaries to purchase private pharmacy discount cards and private insurance policies to protect against catastrophic prescription drug costs. The government would cover the cost of the pharmacy discount cards and the insurance policies for low-income seniors; other seniors would have to pay out-of-pocket but would receive a tax deduction. Most Democrats support a universal Medicare prescription drug benefit (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/11).