Washington – It wasn’t easy to sign up, but now that she’s enrolled in the new Medicare drug benefit, Ruth Dike says it has made a big difference in her finances.
The cost of her medicine ranges from about $10 to $15 a month, she says, versus at least $100 a month before she joined.
“It’s just a relief that I can buy the medications I need without having to worry how I’m going to pay for them,” says Dike.
Congressional supporters of the program worry that the problems that marked its beginnings have drowned out success stories such as Dike’s.
Dike, 74, said the enrollment process was horrendous. Her friends had the same problem.
“None of them could do it themselves,” the Casper woman said.
She enrolled with the help of the local senior center and now spends $2 to $5 for each prescription. By year’s end, she estimates she will have saved about $1,000.
Her story fits the profile that Republican lawmakers and some advocacy groups have stressed in recent weeks.
Once older people enroll in one of the drug plans offered, about three-quarters of those beneficiaries say they are satisfied, according to Medicare Rx Education Network, a consortium of medical groups and trade associations representing insurers and drugmakers.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., acknowledged that some older people are saving money. But he said beneficiaries could have saved more if Republicans had allowed the government to negotiate drug prices on their behalf.
