This poll was released on Tuesday April 25 and is the 12th in a continuing series. The article below summarizes the poll's national findings and the links give much more detail.
(Editor)

Latest Kaiser Tracking Poll Shows Most Seniors Enrolled In Medicare Drug Plans Are Getting Their Drugs Without Problems

Many Not Aware of Impending Enrollment Deadline

With more and more seniors enrolled in drug plans, we can now use our ongoing tracking surveys of seniors to report on their experiences with the Medicare prescription drug law, with the caveat that early experience may or may not be a good predictor of experience later on. Changes in the marketplace or in legislation could impact beneficiaries favorably or unfavorably in the future.

Our latest tracking poll finds that most enrolled seniors are satisfied with their plans and are not having trouble getting the drugs they need. Most seniors enrolled in plans reported filling at least one prescription, and the vast majority of them – more than 8 in 10 – reported no problems getting their prescriptions filled. But still, nearly 2 in 10 did report a problem getting their drugs. We will probe the nature of the problems seniors are having getting their prescriptions filled in greater depth in future surveys.

Medicare beneficiaries have to sign up for the drug benefit by May 15 or pay higher premiums if they enroll in the future, unless they previously had what the government calls "creditable" coverage. Whether or not to roll back the deadline to give beneficiaries more time to make a decision or waive the penalty are hotly debated health policy issues in Washington. Among the seniors who may still enroll – those either unsure of whether they're going to enroll or say they will sign up but haven't done so yet – about half don't know about the deadline or the penalty for late enrollment.

The nationally representative tracking poll – the 12th in a series that comprises three large surveys and nine smaller tracking polls – was conducted among 517 seniors from April 6 to April 11 (with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points). The survey also captures seniors' overall attitudes toward the drug benefit, their knowledge about it, and their reasons for enrolling or not enrolling in a plan. In general, seniors' views about the law remain more unfavorable than favorable despite the positive early experiences of enrollees. This may be due in part to widely reported early implementation problems (many seniors told us that their impressions of the benefit were mainly based on reports in the media). The full survey results are available at
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr042506pkg.cfm .

Also now available is a companion report summarizing in–depth interviews with beneficiaries in four cities about their experiences with the drug law. The report, "Voices of Beneficiaries: Early Experiences with the Medicare Drug Benefit," provides quotes and personal stories that amplify the statistical picture of beneficiary experiences provided in the survey. It is available at
http://www.kff.org/medicare/7504.cfm .