jshearer
09-13-2004, 08:20 AM
Medicare is the national health insurance program for people age 65 and older and people with certain disabilities. Today, Medicare provides insurance coverage for approximately 40 million Americans.
The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, the massive Medicare bill passed by Congress, will provide optional prescription drug coverage for everyone covered by Medicare beginning in 2006. Right now, preliminary regulations that will affect both the number and types of drugs covered for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are being crafted, and the rule makers are accepting comments from the public.
Many private insurers look to Medicare policies as a model. The final rules of the Medicare plan will likely affect how private insurers, as well as government-run health care systems like Medicaid and the Veterans Administration, operate in the future. These rules will likely affect hundreds of thousands of people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in addition to those on Medicare.
If the Medicare prescription drug benefit denies access to a broad range of effective psoriasis therapies, then prescription drug coverage for hundreds of thousands of people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis will likely be impaired.
Please write a letter to the Medicare rule makers, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. We've tried to make it as easy as possible to comment by creating an e-mail form on our Web site. Just visit the homepage and look for the big exclamation point (!) graphic next to the words "ACTION ALERT". Or visit the link: http://www.psoriasis.org/resources/advocacy/medicare.php
Thanks,
Joey Shearer
Advocacy Coordinator
National Psoriasis Foundation
The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, the massive Medicare bill passed by Congress, will provide optional prescription drug coverage for everyone covered by Medicare beginning in 2006. Right now, preliminary regulations that will affect both the number and types of drugs covered for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are being crafted, and the rule makers are accepting comments from the public.
Many private insurers look to Medicare policies as a model. The final rules of the Medicare plan will likely affect how private insurers, as well as government-run health care systems like Medicaid and the Veterans Administration, operate in the future. These rules will likely affect hundreds of thousands of people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in addition to those on Medicare.
If the Medicare prescription drug benefit denies access to a broad range of effective psoriasis therapies, then prescription drug coverage for hundreds of thousands of people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis will likely be impaired.
Please write a letter to the Medicare rule makers, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. We've tried to make it as easy as possible to comment by creating an e-mail form on our Web site. Just visit the homepage and look for the big exclamation point (!) graphic next to the words "ACTION ALERT". Or visit the link: http://www.psoriasis.org/resources/advocacy/medicare.php
Thanks,
Joey Shearer
Advocacy Coordinator
National Psoriasis Foundation