Judge rules that court lacks
power to protect drug access for 6.2 million impoverished
people with Medicare
[New York,
NY] – A federal district judge in
Manhattan ruled this afternoon that federal courts lack the
power to order the continuation of existing drug benefits to
people with Medicare who are losing Medicaid drug coverage
this weekend. The decision says that people denied medicine
must contest that denial, individual by individual, before
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prior to
seeking court protection.
The
plaintiffs, eight consumer organizations from Maine to
California, will bring an immediate appeal of that ruling.
Robert M.
Hayes, the president of the Medicare Rights Center, one of
the plaintiffs in the case, made the following statement:
“Nothing
in this ruling suggests that the oldest, poorest and
frailest Americans are safe. On January 1st the
neediest Americans face potentially catastrophic disruptions
in their access to needed medicine. In the real world,
people cut off from life sustaining medicine cannot survive
the delay of an agency appeal. The responsibility for the
health and safety of these frail Americans rests squarely
with the Bush Administration.”