HEARING - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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Mr. MCCONNELL. Yes, but you have to pay a portion of it.
Mrs. RIEGER. Well, like I say, they take his Social Security check
all but $25, and I am supposed to pay-well, like I say, they said
they would pick up five prescriptions. Well, OK, he only takes two
medicines that have to be prescribed by the doctor; the rest of it is
over-the-counter, and I have to pay for that. They. will not pay for
that. And that amounts to more than what his prescription drugs
do.
Senator WILSON. I am wondering, Mr. Chairman, what the interplay
is.
Chairman MELCHER. Well, might I clarify this. I think this is one
of the examples Americans are faced with. Clearly, the cost of what
Mr. Rieger is receiving is covered by Medicaid. His Social Security
defrays that up to $470-some a month. He has a total Social Security
check of $498, which would only pay a portion of his nursing
home care.
Mrs. Rieger does not get Medicaid because she has an income.
Mrs. RIEGER. No, I do not.
Senator WILSON. That was my point.
Chairman MELCHER. She can either go on welfare and get Medicaid,
or she can continue to work as she wants to do, to pay off the
previous bills.
Mrs. RiEGER. Yes, I will continue to work as long as I can.
Senator WILSON. That was the point of my line of questioning,
Mr. Chairman. That is my surmise as well. And her problem, I
gather, arises not from a single acute illness of her husband or herself,
but the need for continuing care, long-term care, which is
available under Medicaid to a degree.
Mrs. RIEGER. Now, the first 6 months he could have been covered
had I divorced him. And that kind of got me when they told me
that. I said you do not live with someone 40 years and divorce them
just because they are sick. So therefore I spent what little I had
accumulated.
I could state several cases there in Alva, though, where they
have divorced to get the help.
Chairman MELCHER. To get the help immediately.
Mrs. RIEGER. Yes. But I would not do it.
Senator WILSON. It sounds, Mr. Chairman, as though Mrs. Rieger
is in the position of really working a very tough schedule, working
very hard, doing hard work and still being burdened with the extraordinary
cost of these medications. My impression without
knowing is that if she were not working, Medicaid might pay for
most of the long-term care apart from the medications-that still, I
do not think, would be included.
But that looks to me like an area that the committee ought to
explore. It looks as though Medigap still has a gap in that regard.
Chairman MELCHER. Well, Mrs. Rieger, I think you demonstrate
a rather admirable American quality of wanting to continue to
work even though you are 67 going on 68, and even though you
have high blood pressure and apparently a bad knee.
But let me say this. You and your husband must have worked all
your lives, I take it, and made a contribution to the community
and to the country.