Medicare Should Delay Signup Penalties
I found this on Bloomberg:
Older Americans who wait until after May 15 to enroll in the U.S. Medicare drug plan may have to pay extra fees for the rest of their lives, said consumer advocacy groups seeking to extend the deadline.
Under a 2003 law, the premium costs that Americans pay to receive the new coverage will rise 1 percent for each month they delay enrolling after the May deadline. Those who enroll a year late will pay 12 percent more for as long as they’re in Medicare, the U.S. health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled. The law doesn’t set an expiration date.
The deadline pressures senior citizens already complaining about the dozens of new drug plans offered under the program by insurance companies including WellPoint Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon today pressed Medicare chief Mark McClellan to extend the deadline.
Republicans including Olympia Snowe of Maine, a finance committee member, have supported changing the deadline. Sixty votes are needed to change the rule. On Feb. 2, 52 senators voted in favor of extending the deadline, with one supporter, Democrat Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, unable to make the vote.
It will be interesting to see how the vote turns out and, if the deadline is to be changed, when it will be.