Song in my head: Working nine to five....what a way to make living....Barely getting by.....it's all taking and no giving..............................................................................................................Dolly Parton
Medicareless, continued
I'm happy to see that the Medicare prescription drug plan is getting more coverage in blogs the last 2 days. Calling it a plan is being generous. The fact is that many people did not have access to their medications and continue to have problems. This not only affects Annie...but your grannie, and your alter-abled relatives, neighbors, and the psychologically unstable, epileptics and diabetics to name a few. Many seniors and alter-abled keep their delicate health in balance with the aid of prescription drugs. I keep my seizures in check with certain medications and I'm not alone. Obsidian Wings describes the serious and damngerous implications when people are denied their medicine. Read her story if you don't understand why this is a big deal.
Everything I just wrote was what came flooding out onto the keyboard as I was preparing to write the post I had originally intended to write, namely: what would happen to me if I had to get onto the new prescription drug program, and if I didn't have enough money to just bite the bullet and pay full price for the medications I need. If, say, I were one of those dual eligibles I just described. I would not be nearly as badly off as some of the people described above: the person who can't get chemotherapy, for instance, or the man with the newly amputated leg and a life-threatening infection. Nonetheless, my life, in its current form, depends on prescription drugs, and when I decided to figure out how this program would affect me if I had to enroll in it, what I found wasn't pretty at all.
Mac, at pesky' apostrophe on the new Medicare: "SAVE MY GRANDMA"
By enrolling in Medicare Part D, my grandmother’s private insurance was cancelled. Part D is only the prescription drug part of Medicare, so my grandmother doesn’t have medical insurance at the moment. My grandmother...who is 76 years old...does not have medical insurance. My grandmother is in a total panic. My mother is livid. She called me up a few days ago and said, “I’d like to shove this new Medicare thing right up someone’s ass. Like up President Bush’s ass, where it belongs.”
Firedoglake offers these excellent suggestions:Here's an idea: how about we use that travel money to instead fix the damn program. You know, so senior citizens can get the drugs they need to keep them alive right now, instead of months down the road.
Are we being bamboozled?... asks Talking Points Memo:
It really is Bamboozlepalooza all over again.
From the Post: "President Bush's top health advisers will fan out across the country this week to quell rising discontent with a new Medicare prescription drug benefit that has tens of thousands of elderly and disabled Americans, their pharmacists, and governors struggling to resolve myriad start-up problems."
D is for Disaster....Americablog
The complete failure of the Bush/DeLay Prescription Drug Disaster is the untold story of 2006. Families across the country are being tortured by the new program. The Washington Post reported on the District's problems which are mirrored across the country. It's considered a public health emergency:
D is for Debacle....Crooks and Liars
It's really bad when Nokakula attacks his buddy Karl over this:
"It is said only in hushed tones and not by anybody of prominence, but a few brave souls in the Bush administration admit it. President Bush's Medicare drug benefit that went into effect Jan. 1 looks like a political blunder of far-reaching consequences. Furthermore, these critics assign major responsibility to Karl Rove."
Novakula says that the plan was not to help seniors, but to sign them up as voters.
Clusterfuck.........via Lambert
This is “Where is my goverment?” all over again, isn’t it? Just like the Katrina Clusterfuck. The Republicans wanted to drown government in a bathtub, succeeded, and now—Surprise!—they can’t deliver basic services. Although—Surprise!—they did deliver billions to their corporate contributors in Big Pharma.
Max points out the donut hole in the new medicare drug plan. A coverage gap from $2250-$5100.
Criticism confined to the Bush Social Policy Nightmare of the Month actually understates the problems in the program. The other one is noted below in regard to Dean's paper -- the implicit, exhorbitant cost of drugs prescribed by Big Pharma's paid agents on the Hill our fine Republican Congress.
We might also mention that this benefit was unfunded to the extent of creating a budget shortfall more than double the one attributed to Social Security.
At least we're making progress with the war in Iraq. Oh wait
No More Mister Nice Blog...Feds won't pay for their mistake....
Now, let's review: This plan is a disaster so far, but the people who are supposed to make sure that the mess is cleaned up aren't the people at the federal government (which created the plan) or at the private companies (which sell and profit from the actual drug coverage), but in the states, which had all this foisted on them.
Gary at Seeing the Forest calls the new drug program.....
a red headed step child of blatant and intentional fraud:
Mojo Blog....
The Los Angeles Times' Michael Hiltzik, among others, notices that the implementation of the Bush administration's new Medicare bill has been completely and utterly disastrous. As in, people are being denied access to much-needed drugs. And so on. The worst part of the story, however, is that the administration had been warned about these potential pitfalls for about a year now, but never got around to correcting them
Brilliant at Breakfast asks" Is there anything this administration hasn't botched?"
American seniors are starting to get a handle on just how badly they've been screwed by the Bush Medicare Prescription Drug privatization plan:
Body and Soul......here's a reality check....
It isn't just New Orleans that's on its own. It's all of us
