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For the first time in the Kaiser
Family Foundation’s tracking polls on the new Medicare drug benefit,
seniors are as likely to say that they have a favorable impression
of it as an unfavorable one.
The August poll shows about one in three (32%) seniors have a favorable impression of the benefit and an equal amount (32%) have a negative one. Favorable views are up since April, when about one in five (21%) said they had a favorable impression of it.
The survey shows modest progress in seniors’ reported understanding of the new benefit. Overall, 37% of seniors now say they understand the new benefit “very” or “somewhat” well, up from 29% in April. Six in 10 seniors (60%) say they don’t understand the benefit well or at all. Fewer than four in 10 (37%) say that the new drug benefit will be “very” or “somewhat” helpful to them personally, the same share as in April. Slightly more than one in five seniors (22%) say they plan to enroll in the benefit, up from 9% in April. In comparison, one in three (33%) say they do not plan to enroll, and four in 10 (40%) say they haven’t heard enough to decide. "The first test for the drug benefit will come in the next six months as the program launches and seniors begin to enroll, but that early experience will not tell the full story. It will take several years before we see how well beneficiaries navigate the new system and how satisfied they are with it, how much drug prices go up or down, and whether drug plan formularies are adequate or become too restrictive over time," said Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew E. Altman, Ph.D. "Only with a few years of experience will we be able to make a reasonable judgment about this new law." The Kaiser Health Poll Report Survey was conducted and analyzed by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. A nationally representative sample of 1,205 adults ages 18 and older, including 300 respondents 65 years of age and older, was interviewed by telephone by Princeton Survey Research Associates between August 4-8, 2005. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for the full sample and plus or minus six percentage points among seniors. The tracking poll results are available online. The Foundation will continue to conduct tracking polls to monitor seniors' views and experiences with the new Medicare drug benefit, as well as larger, more in-depth public opinion surveys at key points in the implementation process. For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Carkhuff, (202) 347-5270,
or Alexis Riding-Rice, (650)
854-9400. ____________________________ If you know anyone who would be
interested in this alert, please pass it
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