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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Insurance companies are advertising in senior citizen centers and pharmacies, using all forms of media, including 50-year-old images from "I Love Lucy" as they begin marketing the massive new Medicare prescription drug program.
Federal rules allowed insurance companies to begin marketing their products Oct. 1, and enrollment begins Nov. 15. The politically contentious drug plan, which was signed into law by President Bush in 2003, will cost nearly $400 billion over 10 years to implement.
But selling the most sweeping changes in the 40-year history of Medicare to a market of nearly 30 million seniors is not expected to be easy. One of four Medicare beneficiaries has some form of cognitive impairment that will require them to get help from adult children or other caregivers to choose among the various prescription plans, said Tricia Neuman, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, an educational group.
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