Survey: Medicare Participants Not Impressed By New Drug Law

"Fifteen months from implementation, seniors are mostly negative and very confused, but there is little evidence of a large-scale backlash," said Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "This survey suggests that there will be big debates in the future about the prescription drug law, but they will be about improving it, not repealing it."

Adding to the confusion, a majority of those responding said they believe the new program will benefit most people on Medicare but do not feel it will help them personally. Of those responding, 53% said they feel the new law will help at least somewhat those with very high drug costs as well as the "typical person on Medicare," but only 29% said they thought it would help them personally.

Politically, only a minority of those responding said the law would affect their decisions in the voting booth this November. The responses indicated that the new law will more likely affect the votes for Congress rather than in the Presidential race, although more of those who said their votes would be affected by the law said it made them more likely to vote Democratic than Republican.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, August 12, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.