SeniorCare is a prescription drug assistance program for Wisconsin residents who are 65 years of age or older who meet the eligibility criteria. The program is designed to help seniors with their prescription drug costs. Those interested may apply at any time by visiting https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/seniorcare/howwhere.htm
On behalf of WAAN’s member organizations and the nearly 85,000 SeniorCare
enrollees, we request that you keep SeniorCare as it is and not include the Governor’s proposed changes to the program in your final 2015-‘17 State budget. The program is well targeted and continues to be extremely successful at meeting the needs of very low income older people in the state. The following are additional reasons to maintain the existing program:
The proposed changes would significantly increase the out-of-pocket costs for very low income seniors. The average cost for a Part D plan in Wisconsin is $61/month; requiring SeniorCare enrollees to first purchase Part D insurance would increase their total out-of-pocket costs by an average of $732/year. Older people and their families like the administrative simplicity of SeniorCare. The program requires a $30 annual fee and a $5 or $15 co-payment for each prescription with most drugs covered under the Medicaid formula. As you know, the same simplicity does not apply to Part D which requires extensive research every year to determine the best plan in terms of costs and benefits. Because Medicare Part D requires seniors to have creditable coverage to avoid penalties and SeniorCare provides that coverage, over 25,000 enrollees would lose their “creditable coverage” provided by SeniorCare. This would take away their individual choice to not purchase a Part D plan, and force them to buy a Part D plan or face a penalty. SeniorCare is very cost-effective with the largest share (61.4%) of program costs coming from rebates from pharmaceutical companies, 20% from federal matching, and 18.6% from Wisconsin GPR. Any “savings” in GPR would result in at least the loss of an equal amount of federal matching dollars and the loss of 100% of the rebate revenues ($52.9 million in SFY 2013-2014). We need you to Save Our SeniorCare. Refer our FB page timeline or visit http://www.gwaar.org/ to stay up to date and learn how you can help.
