Medicare Modernization Brings Big Changes
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
July/August, 2005
Part I: Medicare— the national health care program for Americans age 65 and older and younger people who qualify because of a physical or mental disability—is about to undergo the most dramatic change in its 40-year history.
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 makes many improvements to Medicare. Of note, all 42 million Medicare beneficiaries will have prescription drug coverage for the very first time. That new coverage has important implications, especially for those people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
These 6.3 million dually eligible people—almost 40 percent of whom have serious mental illnesses or cognitive impairments—will receive their prescription medication through Medicare rather than Medicaid starting January 1, 2006.
"The prescription drug coverage coming next year is for everyone in Medicare, regardless of their income or how they get their Medicare," said Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). "At CMS, we are paying particular attention to making sure that those with Medicaid and Medicare have effective, smooth transitions to what will be very comprehensive coverage for all medically necessary treatments."
More..... Part I
More..... Part II
| ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights Opposes Supreme Court Nominee Judge John Roberts
“Out of the Mainstream” Nominee Poses Threat to Americans with Disabilities
Statement of Jim Ward, Founder and President of ADA Watch/NCDR
Wednesday, JULY 20, 2005
WASHINGTON - July 21 - ADA Watch/NCDR is opposed to the nomination of Judge John Roberts to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
At a time when our Nation could have greatly benefited from the selection of a mainstream consensus nominee, people with disabilities -- indeed all Americans -- should be saddened and disturbed by President Bush's choice of Judge John Roberts to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
While Justice O'Connor did not take the side of people with disabilities in all cases, she was the swing vote on important 5-4 rulings involving the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including historic cases such as Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999) and Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U.S. 509 (2004).
With the selection of John Roberts, President Bush is making good on his stated intention to fill a Court vacancy with a nominee in the mold of Scalia or Thomas -- Justices who have consistently ruled against people with disabilities in these and other landmark cases. If confirmed, such 5-4 votes would surely go in the other direction and reverse the historic gains of people with disabilities.
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