Sunday, January 29, 2006
Seniors ignoring Part D
There's good reason to trust this new poll, as it's fairly consistent with the number of seniors who've signed up thus far, especially if you adjust for seniors who are incapacitated or in nursing homes and not included in the sample. Health and Human Services (HHS) needs 15 million more people to sign up to meet its enrollment goal. Using the poll, if we expect 23% more seniors to enroll, another 8.1 million should do so by the end of the year. That leaves HHS almost 7 million short of its enrollment goal.
The poll also collected data on respondents who did not plan on signing up for Medicare Part D. In general, they:
* w
ere among the lowest users of medical services* had substantially higher incomes
* had higher education levels
* were more likely to be married, and
* did not differ in age from those already enrolled or likely to do so.
These findings aren't surprising in the least; they're just a stark illustration that legislators have failed to convince those unlikely to need a prescription benefit to pay for it anyway. For these individuals, a 1% penalty per month is an insufficient incentive.
The poll also found that education efforts conducted between September and January were fairly effective. While only 11% of seniors in September and 8% in June were "very familiar" with Part D, that number increased to one quarter in December. Seniors are more able to correctly answer questions on the details of the bill, with 68% percent of seniors answering at least five of six questions correctly in December, compared to only 23% in September.
It's fairly troublesome that education efforts haven't increased the number of seniors planning to enroll. To convince that other 53% that it's in their best interest to sign up, some part of the bill will have to be altered. There's a number of fixes that might work, but one thing's for sure: further educational pushes will only be a waste of time.
