More than Half of Senior Citizens will not Enroll for Medicare Part D, Says Survey

By Frank Kaiser,

January 19, 2006

Results released today of a December survey says that over half of senior citizens have absolutely no plans to enroll for Part D benefits. Less than 25 percent actually said they had not joined in December but "intend to do so."

The survey, the latest wave of the quarterly national SeniorTrax survey by DSS Research, asked seniors whether they had selected a Part D plan and were given three options of responding: Yes; No, but I plan on doing so; No and I have no plans to do so.

Less than one quarter (24%) said they had chosen a Part D plan. They were almost evenly split between stand alone PDPs (54%) and MA-PDPs (46%)
Less than one quarter (23%) said they had not chosen a Part D plan, but intend to do so.
Over half (53%) said they had not chosen one and have no plans to do so. (Current coverage: Medigap - 37%, Medicare Advantage - 47% and Medicare Only - 66%).

"These findings are consistent with our predictions of six months ago. Part D is just too expensive and inferior to the coverage seniors are familiar with," said DSS president and CEO Roger Gates.

Highlights of the December study include:

Disinterested, non-buyers are lowest users of medical services. Those who said they had not chosen a plan and had no plans to do so take fewer prescriptions; spend less on prescriptions; go to the doctor less often; and make fewer ER, inpatient hospital and outpatient clinic / surgery center visits.

Disinterested, non-buyers are more affluent. Members of this group report higher levels of education, substantially higher levels of income and are more likely to be married than are members of the other two groups. The groups do not differ in terms of age and other demographic characteristics.

Likely buyers are less cynical, deal prone, do it yourselfers. We tested a battery of attitude statements and found:

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of those who indicated that they had not chosen a Part D plan but intend to do so agree with the statement "redeeming coupons makes me feel good."
They are also most likely, across the three groups, to agree with the statement "I try to deal with my health problems on my own before I go to a doctor."
They are the least cynical of the three groups with a significantly higher likelihood to agree with the statement "In general, companies are honest in their dealings with the consumer."
Further, they are significantly more likely to agree with the statement "I prefer not to pay attention to information involving numbers." In other words, they are most approachable with messages that do not show the numbers.

Familiarity with Part D has increased significantly since September. One quarter of seniors were "very familiar" with Part D in December, compared to 11% in September and 8% in June. Over 73% were somewhat or very familiar with Part D by mid-December. Accurate knowledge of Part D benefits has also increased. Sixty-eight percent of seniors answered at least five of six questions correctly regarding Part D coverage in December, while only 23% were able to provide the correct answers in September. However, the "lock-in" period is still the least understood aspect of Part D, tripping up over half of seniors surveyed in December.

Almost all seniors (97%) have seen or heard advertising for Part D in December compared to 80% in September.

Recall of carriers has also increased significantly since September. Only 55% of seniors who heard or saw advertising in September could name the specific carrier who sponsored the ad, while 83% did so in December. AARP, newspapers, magazines, health insurance companies, friends, agents, employers, seminars and local seniors groups were all mentioned more frequently in December as sources of information on Part D. The most frequent sources in December were: AARP (56%), health insurance companies (51%), Social Security office/web site (45%), newspapers (43%) and TV (35%).