Food Stamps Should Not Go Down For Seniors And People With Disabilities Who Sign Up For Medicare Drug Cards

Publication Date: July 2004

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Dorothy Rosenbaum

Research Area: Health

Keywords: Economic projections; Food costs; Economic inequality; Income diversity

Type: Report

Abstract:

Last year’s Medicare drug law established an interim, transitional drug card program through which Medicare beneficiaries can receive discounts on prescription drugs until the ongoing Medicare drug program goes into effect in January 2006. As part of the drug card program, an additional $600 subsidy, known as “transitional assistance,” is available this year and next year for low-income Medicare beneficiaries (those with income below 135 percent of the federal poverty level) to use toward drug purchases. The drug card benefits began to be available this month. Medicare beneficiaries sign up for the discount drug cards and the transitional assistance through private companies, known as card sponsors, that have been approved by Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that runs Medicare.