Nearly 1.4 million medically fragile, low-income dual Medicare and Medicaid enrollees could find it harder to retain a valuable prescription drug subsidy if the Republican House reconciliation bill becomes law. And the consequences could be life-threatening.
Medicare’s Low Income Subsidy, or LIS program, covers Part D premiums, reduces copayments, eliminates deductibles, and saves limited-income beneficiaries about $6,200 a year in prescription drug costs.
Although duals who could be disenrolled from Medicaid under the GOP bill would retain their Medicare coverage, they would have to re-apply through the Social Security Administration to regain the low-income subsidy.
But many probably won’t because of complicated verification and eligibility requirements and other administrative barriers, said Rachel Gershon, a senior attorney at Justice in Aging.
“You have to know you need to re-apply. Who among us gets knocked off a program and thinks ‘Oh, I must be eligible and re-apply?’ It’s not intuitive,” Gershon said. Staffing cuts and diminished telephone access problems at the Social Security Administration won’t help, she added.
