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Skriven 2006-05-09 23:34:42 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0605094) for Tue, 2006 May 9
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Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan and Julie Goon, Director of Medicare
Outreach, HHS
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 9, 2006

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan and Julie Goon, Director of Medicare
Outreach, HHS
Aboard Air Force One
En route Sarasota, Florida


˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Medicare

10:05 A.M. EDT

MR. McCLELLAN: Good morning, everybody. I brought Julie Goon back, she's a
senior advisor to Secretary Leavitt at HHS, to talk a little bit more about
those who are in the low-income bracket who are qualified, are having the
ability to enroll after May 15th, as well. The President touched on that in
his remarks. We talked about it a little bit over it the last couple of
weeks, I think, but some of you had some questions on it. So with that,
I'll just turn it over to Julie and let her give you the basics on it.

MS. GOON: Do you all want to ask questions, or do you want me to just give
you a rundown real quick first?

MR. McCLELLAN: Why don't you go over some of the facts about what the
President touched on.

MS. GOON: Okay. In looking at the remaining groups of people that need to
be enrolled, out of the about 5.7 million people remaining, half of those
are people who we think qualify for the low-income subsidy. That's the
hardest group of beneficiaries to find and identify and get enrolled, and
that's been consistently true in other low-income entitlement programs.

Because of the two-step enrollment process, those folks have to apply for
the low-income subsidy through Social Security, be approved, then they
enroll, and in many cases they can't afford the premiums until they are
actually approved for the subsidy.

We decided that qualifying for the subsidy caused a change in their
enrollment status, so that triggered a special election period. So for
those folks, people who qualify for the low-income subsidy, they will be
allowed to enroll past the May 15th deadline.

There was some question of whether or not the penalty that's applied to
people after the deadline would apply to low-income subsidy beneficiaries,
and it was decided that we can waive that penalty because it would cause --
the penalty for low-income subsidy beneficiaries is so diminimous, it would
cost more to collect it than it would be to actually have the value of that
penalty collected. So for low-income people, they're not going to have to
worry about the May 15th deadline, and they're not going to have to worry
about paying a penalty if they don't get enrolled right away. And like I
said, that's about half of the remaining beneficiaries left to be enrolled.

Q And the remaining is 5.7 million?

MS. GOON: About 5.7 million.

Q How many have signed up so far? What's the total now?

MS. GOON: Total overall? It's just over 31 million. And then there is
another 5.8 million that have other sources of credible coverage. So we're
right up around 37 million right now.

Q Is there a simple way to describe what that low-income cutoff is, or is
it a complicated formula?

MS. GOON: For individuals, it's income of about $15,000 a year and under,
and assets of around $11,000. So there is an income test and an asset. For
couples it's a little higher; I think it's around $21,000 in income.

Q You think about half the 5.7 million are low-income who are eligible for
the special subsidy?

MS. GOON: Yes, that's right. About half of the 5.7 million remaining
beneficiaries to be enrolled are folks we estimate are eligible for the
low-income subsidy.

Q How do you find them in less than a week?

MS. GOON: Well, again, that's why it's important to know that we're
allowing them more time to be found. So when we find them, that does
trigger a special election period with no longer any penalties, so we can
get them enrolled. But there's a lot of work going on -- I'm sorry.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, no, go ahead. I think you were getting to it.

MS. GOON: I was just going to say, there's a lot of work going on with
different partners -- the National Council on Aging, the AARP, a lot of the
non-traditional minority organizations are working with us, the NAACP.
There are a lot of Hispanic organizations that have put out calls to
actions to their groups to get all of these folks enrolled and qualified.

Q But what kind of things are they doing? Like, what kind of things are the
organizations doing?

MS. GOON: Well, they're hosting events in churches. Yesterday was "Sign Up
Sunday" in a number of African American churches around the country. The
Secretary visited a number of those churches. But they had enrollment going
on after the church service. They've been advertising in their bulletins.
The Hispanic organizations have put out a call to action to all of their
folks asking for people to work with, and get their family members
enrolled.

MR. McCLELLAN: All right? Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it, Julie.

MS. GOON: No problem.

Q Thank you, ma'am. That was very nice of you.

MR. McCLELLAN: Are you done?

Q No.

Q The Iran letters. Does the President intend to formally respond to the
letter from Ahmadinejad with a letter or some other method?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me remind you what the Secretary of State said
yesterday, what I said yesterday. This letter does nothing at all to
address the concerns of the international community, or that the
international community has regarding the regime's nuclear program. The
regime needs to come clean and comply with its obligations. And that's why
discussions are continuing at the Security Council, or amongst the Security
Council, on moving ahead on a Chapter 7 resolution that would compel the
regime to come clean and comply with its obligations.

The letter appears to be more about trying to change the subject. Secretary
Rice is up in New York. She's had discussions with her counterparts within
the Security Council, and Germany, as well. And those discussions are
continuing.

Q So, are you kind of -- you're saying that he is not going to respond with
a letter or --

MR. McCLELLAN: It's not an issue of whether we respond, it's an issue of
whether the regime will respond to the demands of the international
community. The international community is concerned about the regime's
pursuit of nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program.

Q Okay, thanks.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay, thank you. (Laughter.)

END 10:12 A.M. EDT

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