Lott: Scrap Medicare drugs, pay for storm

about how to finance the gulf rebuilding and every fucking one of them says how about stop pouring money into that cf in Iraq. Even those who may have bought into the bullshit originally have now come to realize that we aren't accomplishing jack now.

On the bright side the pace of US casualties seems to have slowed considerably but I suspect this is only because we have stopped seeking out and engaging the insurgents and have retreated to a defensive posture inside the green zone and other "safe" havens.

And if this is the case, wtf are we even there for? We have no power to affect the political future of Iraq. we can't even protect the oil fields. Our troops are at the mercy of events now, events which we set in motion but which we are now powerless to control.

The whole fuckup isn't very becoming to our image as the "world's only superpower".

HUGH!!!! drain on America. And it's only going to get worse, not better.

Lott was unconvinced by that argument.

"Condi, honey, why don't you sing us a spiritual...

The only time I agree with Trent. Drop it now and start over later.

Then we can make sure we kill all those people Haley kicked of Medicaid earlier this year, in anticipation of the the Medicare benefit. Wouldn't want to let the elderly and disabled live longer, they might vote against us since they are all democrats. :sarcasm:

to get my prescription drug bill down to a manageable level, but I've never really had much faith in it to begin with.
Of course the transportation bill must be kept intact, the bridge to nowhere MUST be built and lord knows the freeways in LA need new shrubbery. :eyes:
Why is it that the first place these dorks look when it comes to cutting spending is always programs that actually HELP people? god forbid we should cut the fucking pentagon's bloated, pork filled budget!
I'm so sick of fucking Republicans it's probably going to take yet MORE prescriptions to get myself feeling well again.

If you want to save money on prescription drugs, buy them online. The Medicare prescription drug 'benefit' is a total scam. Drug companies and medical insurance companies like it, though.

Please consider this article from Consumer Reports:

***

August 2004

The Medicare-approved drug discount cards introduced on June 1 promise lower prices on prescription medications. But you can get a better deal by shopping online.

We compared the cost of five prescription drugs (which were among the top sellers last year) in five cities--Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, and San Bernardino, Calif.--on one day in mid-May 2004. We checked prices from all the discount-card programs in each city and at the www.costco.com and www.drugstore.com Web sites. San Bernardino had seven cards available; the other locations, about three dozen each.

As the table below shows, discount cards often had much higher prices. Except for the price paid for Prevacid, the Medicare cards’ average prices were invariably higher than those of the Web sites. Even the lowest discount-card prices we found were usually only $1 to $3 better for 30 tablets than those at the online outlets. The online sellers do have modest shipping charges: $1.50 at Drugstore.com and $2 at Costco.com.

Before you or any family members sign up for a Medicare drug-discount card, do some comparison shopping. Go to www.medicare.gov, or call 800-633-4227, and then check prices at www.drugstore.com and www.costco.com.

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv4.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=450955&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=162687&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=333141&bmUID=1127310459589

ClintonTyree, for the greed of the conservatives. What about rolling back the tax breaks to the wealthy? It won't hurt them, they won't have to choose between food and medicine, because they will still be incredibly rich. No, Chimp won't do that. He'll tell you, and me, and millions like us that it's too bad, we should have been born to different parents, ones who provided us with large trust funds.

Republican policies KILL people. They kill overtly, like in Iraq, and they do it by stealth, by cutting the safety net that keeps ordinary people from being killed when their personal lives crash. They send jobs overseas, pay less for the jobs that remain, keep more and more Americans without health insurance, and suffer no shame from doing those things.

Why not just leave Iraq, roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy, and take care of the vulnerable in this country for a change.

they refuse to roll back tax cuts to the wealthiest among us, but are quite willing to put off crucial health-care for those in need.

This needs to be spread far and wide. All those average folks who need the help might finally start realizing that these bozos have NOTHING for them, and no real interest in them.

Now, while the total incompetence of this gang is finally becoming apparent to a whole bunch of Bush supporters, now is the time to push the message home!

to be the first to "slam these guys". I've seen no one step forward yet to champion the execution of the Republican party. A few speeches and statements here and there, but nobody who is willing to stick their neck out far enough to perhaps get it chopped off for slamming these jerks. We need someone with balls (or ovaries, as the case may be) to step forward and say "I'm the one that's going to hold them accountable". Until then, zzzzzzzzzzzzz :boring:

I'm frustrated, too.

Lott is right on this one. He also wants the govt to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs like other countries do, like the Veterans administration does.

Please look at how the "prescription benefit" rolls out in real life, I know because I investigated it thoroughly:

There is a deductible and a monthly premium. The mo premium is $35.

I wrote Congressman Richard Burr to ask him what my Mother's monthly out of pockets would be with the 2006 benefit, based on her medicines costing $600.00 a month, every month. It took his office 6 weeks to figure it out.

With a monthly cost of medicines of $600.00:

Figures include the $35 monthly premium for "prescription insurance"

Month Amount$ that patients out of pocket will be:

Jan $355
Feb $155
Mar $155
April $470
May $635
Jun $635
July $635
Aug $635
Sept $135
Oct $35
Nov $35
Dec $35

That patient will probably die or be hospitalized in the month of April. Then, when they die, the republicans can spend that person's social security check on another war/Halliburton.

It is cheaper but a bit hard to buy from Canada but you have to buy a 3 month supply, and then you have to order 3-4 weeks ahead.)
Most seniors don't have extra money in their budget ever.

The medicare modernization act also throws some elderly off of the medicaid prescription plan, meaning that they won't be able to afford meds at all.

The medicare modernization bill is the worst most disgusting rip-off I have seen in the past 4 years Besides all of the other rip-offs.

This is one of the few times that Lott is right.

The "medicare modernization act" takes away from the seniors and lines the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. The pharma companies helped draw it up.

and make Lott and his buddies--who can afford it--pay for their own health care out of pocket! I'm sure they wouldn't object to making such a reasonable sacrifice for their country!

:sarcasm: --effing bastards!

Our weakest, oldest and poorest should have the same benefits as these SOBs. Then, can you imagine?

....don't make the Tax cuts permanent, leave the Estate Tax in place and cut the Pork - there is a good portion of the money for NO.

see my previous post, for a real life account.

THERE IS NO BENEFIT FOR SENIORS ON THIS ONE.

There is no regular monthly benefit.
There are

*monthly premiums
*out of pocket deductibles
*limits for govt to spend then you hit the donut hole
complicated math - something even the congressman's office had trouble with, imagine a sick elderly person doing this
*some months NO benefit at all, but still have premium to pay

If the congress really wanted to help the elderly, a 40% discount would be equal to the annualized saving that the medicare modernization act provides.

That still would be shamefully small, IMHO, as someone whose mother spends thousands a year.

poor elderly people who can't afford their medications.

This prescription drug program may be far from perfect, but its the whole idea that the repubs would immediately look to cutting a program like this first that hacks me off. They should be looking at shelving the estate tax bill, rescinding those tax breaks for the wealthy and going after the barrels of pork in the budget first.

Please read my other posts, I have the facts.

Don't defend a completely deadly poisonous program just because
a republican suggested cutting it.

Oh well, go ahead and defend the medicare modernization act,
the pharmaceutical companies will be greatly pleased, as will the republican administration, whose goal is to reduce the number of elderly receiving a social security check.

Learn about the "benefit" and see why most seniors who are able to handle their own affairs are shunning it.

It is not a benefit.

It is a pretend discount, and some months you don't get anything.

Seniors can't pay 100% some months, and have a benefit others.
They don't have enough money in the first place, so how do they pay for their meds during the donut hole?

instead of looking at other ways to trim the budget to pay for Katrina reconstruction (like the estate tax and tax cuts for the wealthy) they immediately zero in on a program designed to help the poor. That's what I'm hacked off about. I'm not saying the plan is acceptable to start with, but it shows where the priorities are.

If they scrub this prescription drug plan now do you think they will revise it or drop the idea altogether?

yeh, just like all of those other federal programs designed
by republicans.

and wouldn't benefit the average senior or disabled person. My parents are the perfect example. They'd pay way more than they'd benefit. I'm in a business where I have to know these things. I've advised everyone I know who doesn't have much income to not take it, however, they get them on that too. For every month they're eligible and don't take it, if at some point in the future they should choose, they pay a 1% premium penalty for each month they could have taken it but didn't. It's not so simple as I just made it, but trust me, for the average Senior, it sucked the big one.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Cut the pork, rethink the Medicare D plan. Fire Bush and the entire Republican party!

I guess some folks were taken in by the title:

Medicare modernization act

prescription benefit (for drug companies, keeps their prices high, bans importation, has months of no benefit at all, seniors can't budget for it, is a discount, not a co-pay plan, bans the govt from negotiating the drug prices, was written by pharma companies)

Is like anything created by the republican majority -

Leave no child behind (so govt can recruit them)
Operation Iraqi Freedom ( yeh their souls from their bodies)
Patriot Act (read Orwell)
Homeland Security Dept (Heil Hitler)
Social Security privatization - Condie will like this, she is on the BOD of Schwaab investments

it's a disaster.

Medicare Prescription Drug Card Plan Confuses Seniors, Offers No Real Savings for Many Being Pressured to Enroll
Monday September 12, 3:19 pm ET


WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A study conducted by http://www.UniversalDrugStore.com, a leading mail order pharmacy operating in Canada, reveals that contrary to claims of savings for seniors enrolled in the Medicare Prescription Drug Card Plan D, the mandatory plan will in most cases actually cost seniors more than if they choose to fill their prescriptions utilizing savings available from a licensed, registered Canadian pharmacy. The Canadian option over the past 5 years has saved Americans in need of affordable prescription drug coverage an average of 42%.

"Seniors are being deluged with information about different plans, each claiming to be superior to that of a competitor. It would probably take months for any individual to properly study and choose a plan that is best for them. Even after making their decision, many individuals do not realize they are locked in but the plan they have chosen can change at any time. This can mean increased premiums, increased co-pays, reduced drug coverage and myriad stipulations that may greatly reduce the benefits," he explains

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050912/nym247.html?.v=9

This evaluation of the "benefit" is accurate, I have done my own study.

Please do not defend a federal program that was designed to hurt seniors, not to help them. It has a nice title, but it is
NO BENEFIT.

Let the congressmen have that benefit, if it is so good.
At least they have the staff to do the mathmatical calcuations to figure out how much they will pay each different month.

anybody out there thinking we need to make the top 1% start paying more and rescind the Bush tax cuts of 2001??

for another wholesale gasoline tax. Oil companies are gouging consumers already, might as well siphon a little off for the federal budget.

This prescription drug plan is the first step in destroying Medicare as we know it. In the long run, it doesn’t benefit seniors at all; it does just the opposite: It undercuts the basic value of Medicare.

There’s no cost-containment at all. Pharmaceuticals on the stock market went up right away because the only people who’ll benefit from this plan are the drug companies. That’s who paid for the ads we've seen in support of this plan

http://www.house.gov/murtha/health/rx-reax.htm

My family member just had a major joint replaced and the hospital kicked her out the next day. She has no inpatient or outpatient therapy. Thanks to medicare, she will probably lose that joint and all the money and pain will be for nothing.

Medicare recently stopped paying some medical bills that I recently had because Social Security told them that I was DEAD.

I had to personally take myself to the local SS office and prove to them that I was still alive and kicking!

But the problems that this little "mistake" has caused, are multiplying exponentially.

I have absolutely no interest in signing up for the "prescription drug plan".

:) I am glad to hear that you are still alive and kicking! We need all the voices to speak up about these issues.

"Go to a nursing home, or something", the clerk said. He was back in hospital in five days. He died in three weeks.

It is seeming more and more like they are killing off the older generation. We have to win in 2006 and 2008 to stop this murder. I just hope it is not too late for so many people!

At the time, our family was lost in the bureaucratic swirl of the doctors, hospital, insurance, and government. Years later, I realized what really had happened. I still don't know what I could have done differently, though.

most. Doesn't Trent understand that those victims of the hurricane are gonna need all the help they can get. Why screw the seniors? Dump the war, and borrow from Halliburton & the Carlyle Group they have all our money.

Please bone up on the facts - most seniors don't even understand the
so-called drug benefit.

It doesn't help seniors, and it was drawn up by the drug companies themselves.

Do people bother to understand an issue before rendering a judgement on it?

prescription card from this program, which they have been issuing for the last year, and have been getting my meds at next to nothing.

I think you should do a little research.


Get a fucking grip on things!!

our tax dollars--the ones that he wants to steal from our elderly and their prescription drugs?

or did you read up on it and find out it only benefits the drug
companies, and seniors still can't afford their meds, in fact meds will cost more?

that way. I should've known better ... thus,now that you point this out to me, i think the seniors will get screwed even more if the drug companies don't get their benefit and TRENT LOTT, HALEY BARBOUR, and all that crap uses it to rebuild their waterfront HOMES so Bush can park his ass on them.

(sorry for my foul language--bush stepped on my last never a long time ago)!

This "benefit" is a giveaway to Bush's big pharma friends. My mother, 77, has been getting deeply discounted prices on drugs through the cards from the individual pharmas. These cards, with one exception, had no enrollment fee. Now these same companies have sent her terse letters announcing that once the Medicare drug "benefit" goes on-line, these cards are null and void. I can't really decipher the various plans, but we did figure that, with her current medications, it would cost her more to pay the premiums and co-pays than to buy her own drugs outright. HOWEVER, seniors are being blackmailed into signing up--if you don't enroll in the initial period, and decide to enroll later, you'll pay a late penalty for the rest of your life. So, she's enrolling in case she needs more prescriptions later.

If the Dems had any cajones, they'd take advantage of this opportunity to retool the benefit. I'm not holding my breath.

now that some states (Missouri, Tennessee, etc) have cut out Medicaid pharmaceutical coverage, Medicare D is actually the safety net for elderly and people with disabilities.

Didn't Saint Ronnie of Reagan prove that supply side economics work? We were supposed to be rolling in prosperity now, right? The treasury is stuffed with surpluses, since all those tax cuts for rich people have increased revenues dramatically, because everyone has benefited from the crumbs falling off the tables of the wealthy elite! No? Well, I know how to fix that. More tax cuts for rich people and corporations! Yessir, and if that doesn't work we'll just keep doing it over and over until it works.

This would have all worked out great by now, but it's Clinton's fault.

:rant: :sarcasm:

he needs a new one soon. And anyway, he has great health care...we pay for it.
What a sorry sack of shit. End the War. Bring the troops home
IMPEACH BUSH AND SEND THEM ALL TO THE HAGUE!

screw trent

you are so right - screw Trent Lott, those pharmaceutical companies really need all of that money.

Far be it that this phony benefit that makes medicines cost more be repealed.


The Bush Co did a great job- even democrats are fooled into thinking that Bush wants to help seniors with this phony drug benefit.

Keep the prescription drug benefit, that way there will be less senior citizens around.

care.

Works for me.

There seems to be a LOT of confusion. There are essentially 3 different programs.

1) First program was the Medicare Approved Discount Card which ends Dec 31. It was a marginal benefit for many seniors; however, if the seniors made under 40K/yr, and you selected the right card, with a little finagling you could get your drugs for a $5-$40 copay, which would be an excellent benefit.

2) The Medicare Part D, which starts Jan 1. This is an insurance policy which depending on available plans, is based on a deductible, coinsurance, donut, then a stop-loss for extreme spending. It will cost $35/month, and like Medicare Part B will have an actuarilly computed penalty if you enroll past the open enrollment date and can't prove prior coverage. The premium is about $400/yr.

3) For low income seniors, those who have income less than the poverty level, as well as have little to no assets other than a house and inexpensive vehicle, this will be a different plan. It will not have a premium, and it will pay 95% of all drug purchases with no coinsurance, deductible, or donut.

for low income seniors who would have been on medicaid.

Although somewhat true what you said, it is not the case all over the country.

Many states do not provide, or provide very limited perscription drug benefits to seniors outside of a nursing home. For these seniors, this could be a godsend. Remember, under Medicaid drug coverage is an optional coverage. Many states provide 3 scripts a year, others limit it to 2 a month.

The qualification benefits are also much more liberal than those for Medicaid in many states.

1) No new tax cuts. Period.
2) Re-evaluate income taxes. Institute a more progressive tax. Make the highest tax bracket 59%, and no loopholes. I don't give a damn how many tax attorneys you have, you pay 100% of your fair share. If you're going to fancy yourself a robber baron, then you'll damned well be taxed like one.
3) Re-visit the estate tax. Take it back to 20-yr ago amounts. F*** paris hilton and f*** the walmart heirs. Big dynastic fortunes breed people like, well, paris and the walmart heirs. 'nuf said.
4) FULLY tax Social Security Income. Remove the $90,000 cap. If you make $20 million in one year, you pay Social Security on the FULL $20 million.
5) Throw that piece of shit Medicare bill to the dogs where it belongs. Immediately the government will negotiate (just like most other civilized countries where the government is in the health care business) prices on all pharmaceuticals and other components of healthcare. Why should the U.S. government pay premium while everyone else gets to go bargain basement?
6) Institute an energy windfall profits tax. If the fucking oil companies are going to price gouge, penalize the snot out of them. Speaking of the oil companies...
7) Nationalize the energy infrastructure in this country. Since big oil already owns the government, it's only fair the people own big oil.
8) Resist further deregulation and privatization. Look at the enron. Look at the airline industry. All deregulation and privatization do is make a VERY SMALL portion of the population rich.
9) Put the new bankruptcy bill right where it belongs, up the ass of MBNA. Indentured servitude went out 150 yrs ago.
10) Once again, taxes. All companies doing business in the United States will pay their fair share of taxes. No more Cayman Islands tax dodges. If the big corporations in this country paid their fair share, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Big corporate has bamboozled American business into thinking the best interests of big corporate are the best interests of American business. Couldn't be further from the truth. Big corporations are lousy citizens. And speaking of...
11) Reexamine basic corporate law in this country. Corporations are not persons. People are persons. Corporations are entities that exist to enrich themselves at the expense of everything else. Corporations don't give a shit if the air and water are clean. They don't breathe or drink. Corporations are like viruses: viruses exist to replicate themselves; corporations exist to enrich themselves. Remove the "person-hood" status for corporations.

on edit:
12) Outlaw all lobbying of government officials. Give lobbyists 24 hours to vacate D.C., then put a price on their heads and shoot them on site. They're a huge problem with American government. The cash corrupts everyone it touches.

not that will do any good. But at least I can vent.My dad and I are on medicare. It's the only the way dad can pay for his meds.


Wanna see it when I'm done???

thak goodness. Can we do something sensible like expand Medicare a tiny bit instead? I'm so tired of these lackluster pukkke morons showboating all their dazzling ideas.

All that military-industrial pork. Add Senator Stevens' useless Alaskan bridges.

if we let more people die off we won't have to pay for them anymore."

:sarcasm:

Well, shiver me timbers, matey. That conjob of a giveaway to the drug industry should never have passed in the first place. By "too far along" the Smirking Moron means that his buddies have already accounted for their windfall profits and to cancel the program would turn zillionaires into very disappointed multi-billionaires.

250,000 and above,cut back the billions in tax breaks to big oil and other corporations and get the hell out of Iraq instead of putting the burden on other poor and elderly Americans.

Have the repugs no shame?

Kill the windfall for the insurance industry before it happens.

We have to do something...

ie. also roll back the taxcuts and get out of Iraq too.

Then, we can talk about a REAL prescription drug benefit.

I STRONGLY doubt that Lott would agree with that though.

what exactly they are trying to do? Play the Dems off the elderly when they hold the "estate tax" card?

Rita hasn't even washed a speck of salt up on Texas and still they see the pay-offs.

I thought bushites in HHS swore to congress that the costs would be below $400 b and then just after passage acknowledged it was going to be closer to $550 (don't recall exact #s) - but haven't read $700 - either I missed a news item - or Lott just let a bushco "secret from the public" out of the bag.

Screw the elderly and pay Halliburton. More freakin' corporate welfare.

GET CORPORATIONS OFF WELFARE:nuke:

At this point, the only line items large enough on the social side of the discretionary federal budget are benefit programs for the elderly and disabled. The only way to make the numbers add up without raising taxes is to slash them.

The roll-out was just more plastic "discount" cards that most pharmacies and infomercial people already offered.. the lead-time was sufficient for the pharma companies to raise prices for common drugs by up top 40%..then the few seniors who did take the temporary cards got a 10-25% discount on drugs whose prices jumped 40%?? Such a deal!

and in the initial phase of the bill the pharma companies GOT cash money (for 'studying and implementing the system)..

truth-be-told, the reason the start up was pushed back to '06, was to get votes in '04 and stall long enough so the eventual benefits could be watered down or eliminated altogether..

It's working juts the way they planned:(

bush can sit on his Fucking new porch?

Built on the backs of poor people who need those prescription drugs..is that what this insensitive fucker is saying?

Hi Seantor,

I can remember you from when I actually lived on the coast twenty years ago.I always knew you were colorful and spoke your mind and had your own opinions. But cutting medicare?????


Nope,sorry sir

Try again.....

How about hitting our wonderful gas companies up for the money??? Better yet,the saudis orrrrrrr that guy in the white house.

You know,I figured your house was more important than the pepole on the coast or frankly the country,but this takes the cake.

Me Personally,you ask? I could live,I have other ways of paying for my pills. But I worry for pepole like my dad who is disabled and doesn't. Maybe he could come live with you and you could look after him. He could help you with your house. He's an ex-marine and we all know you love our vets,being the wonderful patriot you are....or claim to be.

Sincerely,

Michael Lawson


PS-Seantor,when even our president can put two and two together and realize this a stupid idea,you know you've screwed up.

First thing that popped into my head, that movie, Sophie's Choice. Yep it's either give those poor people a place to live or let grandma become unable to pay for her drugs and die.

You decide, America.

Choices America. You pay for your fear one way or another. You elect idiots and evil greedy bastards and think you can be just as rich as them..well you have to be just as evil too.