MEDICARE CLOCK TICKING:

As the May 15 deadline approaches, one-third of California
senior citizens still have not signed up for the Medicare
prescription drug benefits plan. Some 150 local seniors attended a
workshop hosted by Congresswoman Lois Capps and Assemblymember
Pedro Nava in Goleta last Saturday. Computer assistants and
volunteers from the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy
Program (HICAP) were on hand to help people choose among the 48
plans and their movable parts; they also offered advice on possible
drug substitutions, side effects, and interactions. Lois Capps’s
spokesperson noted that the congresswoman and her mother – a
professional woman in possession of a PhD and all her
marbles – recently spent several hours trying to figure out which
plan would work best. HICAP is available to offer further
assistance at (800) 434-0222.