President Clinton Responds to Alarming Findings

New Efforts to Increase Awareness of Medicare Buy-In Programs Will Help Millions of Low-Income Seniors and People with Disabilities

Statement by Ron Pollack - executive director of Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers - on today's announcement by President Clinton to improve outreach efforts to enroll low-income Medicare beneficiaries in Medicare buy-in programs:

"We are delighted that the President has responded decisively to the problems low-income seniors and people with disabilities are experiencing paying for their Medicare premiums. The President's actions are likely to result in significant savings for low-income seniors and people with disabilities - savings achieved by ensuring that these people have their Medicare premiums paid for by Congressionally enacted programs.

"In a report to be released tomorrow, Families USA found that over 4 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for these benefits but are not receiving them. Instead, each month, these low-income seniors and disabled persons are having their Social Security checks deducted to pay for their Medicare premiums - to the tune of $2 billion each year. For a low-income senior or person with a disability, the amount being lost equals $525.60 per year.

"We gave a copy of our report to the White House, the Social Security Administration, and the Health Care Financing Administration almost three weeks ago. I am delighted that they have worked cooperatively together to develop a responsive plan to deal with this problem.

"The steps outlined today by the President will go a long way to ensuring that low-income Medicare beneficiaries will have a much better chance to get their Medicare premiums subsidized so that their meager Social Security checks are no longer deducted."

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org