Gingrey, of Georgia’s 11th district, visited Polk County to lead a discussion about the new national prescription drug benefit. The town hall meeting took place at the Cedartown Senior Center and was attended by a crowd of senior citizens and concerned community members.
Gingrey said the new bill will modernize the Medicare program and put it on par with non-senior health plans.
“This bill makes the changes needed to bring Medicare to the 21st century,” Gingrey said. “I do believe we’ve done the right thing with this bill.”
“We probably came up with a good balance on this bill,” he continued. “One that makes sense.”
A big part of the passing of the bill through the Capitol, according to Gingrey, was the support of the AARP. But the senior citizens group hinged its support on Congress’ assurance that employers would not drop retirees’ in-surance plans if the bill were put in place.
So, in turn, it was written in that the federal government would reimburse employers 28 cents for every dollar they spend on retired people’s insurance plans, tax-free. “I don’t believe this bill would have passed if that wasn’t in there,” Gingrey said.
According to Gingrey, a major reason for revising Medicare concerned the future of the program.
“If we don’t change it and modernize it, as this bill does, there will be no Medicare,” he said, predicting that the service would go bankrupt within 30 years if the current plan went untouched.
However, Gingrey said the new plan was not for everybody and, if a person wanted to, they would still be able to keep their plan the same as it has been.
Although the new Medicare plan will not be available until 2006, all beneficiaries will receive a prescription drug card in the meantime with a $600 credit added to their account each intermediate year.
“It’s like being a member of Sam’s Club on steroids,” Gingrey explained.
He said that due to the 40 million Americans on Medicare using these cards, it is estimated that the average price of prescriptions will drop 15 to 20 percent.
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