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5,643 Insurers Poised to Offer Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit



Typical senior to save $300 per year, receive 400 mailings per day

Baltimore, MD - September 29, 2005

On October 1st, thousands of private insurers will get the green light to begin marketing the new government-subsidized prescription drug benefit authorized by Congress in 2003. By some estimates, the nation's 43 million Medicare subscribers stand to save as much as $575 per year, assuming they manage to find the best plan out of roughly 214,000 options. To help seniors make this daunting choice, the health insurance industry is preparing a public education campaign which will drop about 40 pounds of advertising in their mail boxes each and every day. According to Steve Deveney, spokesman for South Carolina Pharmicare, "Our campaign will benefit thousands of Americans. In addition to providing vital information about Medicare and prescription drug coverage, it will give lonely homebound seniors hours and hours of reading pleasure. And the direct health benefits to U.S. postal employees will be tremendous."

Industry sources also announced the start of a full media blitz targeting Medicare subscribers. Drug benefit ads will appear on TV and radio, in newspapers, large print magazines and bran cereal, at shopping malls, Buick dealerships, barber shops, second-tier supermarkets and funeral homes. Anticipation of increased advertising revenue drove shares of Viacom, parent company of CBS, up five percent yesterday to $34.72. Strangely, share prices for the parent companies of the WB and UPN networks were unaffected.

Critics of the new privatized benefit plan are not so upbeat. According to Sandra McBride of the non-profit group 'Give Retirees Every Entitlement Deserved', "We predict that one out of four Medicare subscribers between the ages of 75 and 80 will either die of natural causes before selecting a benefit plan, or suffer serious health complications from the selection process. Unfortunately, future medical advances are not expected to keep pace with the proliferation of drug benefit options." In a preventative measure, FEMA officials have authorized the start of a separate public information campaign titled 'How to Survive When Your Home Is Flooded By Junk Mail'. The helpful guides should be reaching seniors by early next week.
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