Poll Finds Many Seniors Unaware of Part D Deadline

Family physicians might want to remind their older and disabled patients about the May 15 enrollment deadline for Medicare Part D prescription plans. That's because an April 20 Kaiser Family Foundation Poll found 44 percent of respondents age 65 or older and 73 percent of people ages 18 to 64 did not know the enrollment deadline.

The poll, "Seniors' Early Experiences with the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit -- April 2006," (PDF file: 14 pages / 263 KB. More about PDFs.) surveyed 1,446 adults 18 and older; of that number, 517 were 65 or older.

Results also showed that, although 46 percent of all senior respondents have an unfavorable impression of the benefit, 48 percent of those who have enrolled in a plan favor the benefit. Eighty-two percent of enrolled seniors who tried to fill a prescription said they did not have problems, and 75 percent said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their plans.

Still, many people continue to report they don't understand the benefit. The poll found that 65 percent of all respondents and 53 percent of older respondents said they understood the benefit "not too well" or "not well at all." That confusion may help explain why 67 percent of senior respondents said they had not enrolled in a Part D plan, and 38 percent said they didn't plan to do so.

Major reasons for not planning to enroll included "I don't need to enroll because I already have drug coverage under another plan or program" (65 percent); "It's too complicated" (37 percent); and "I don't think it will save me money" (37 percent).

Seniors are not likely to find information that would end their confusion through online information sources, according to the poll. Seventy-one percent of senior respondents said they had never gone online for any reason, and 62 percent had not heard of the Medicare.gov Web site.