Bush Calls Medicare Drug Plan 'A Good Deal' (Sign up anyway)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_prescription_drugs_4

SPRINGFIELD, Va. -President Bush, acknowledging the Medicare drug plan seems perplexing, urged seniors on Tuesday to sign up anyway. "It's a good deal," he said of the program, which begins Jan. 1.

"For some seniors, this is a daunting task," Bush said. "When you give people choice and options ... it can be a situation where people say, `I don't really — this is something I may not want to do.'"

Frank Sinatra was crooning over a sound system as Bush visited with residents and experts who were there to answer questions about the program. Greenspring, home to more than 2,000 moderate-income residents, is managed by Erickson Retirement Communities based in Catonsville, Md.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., said one woman told him that she called Medicare three times with questions about enrollment and received three different answers. Seniors with drug coverage through Health Maintenance Organizations and retiree plans are being told to sign up for the new prescription drug plans, only to find out that by doing so, they lose their existing coverage, he said.

Oh my god.

most of the elderly really won't be able to afford their medications.

This is one of the sickest things the administration has done. That's saying a lot considering what they have done.

*exhale* and the majority of them actually believed in him and voted for him...

undoable? or is america stuck with this thing?

Death to millions who cannot afford this stupid, ludicrous "plan"! If it were truly a plan to help people it could be very simple, and should be, but for millions of people who will never use it or understand that they were even eligible to, their health is in total jeopardy!
I can only hope that those millions will help to change this country back to some form of normality by revolt at the ballot or if needed total revolution and trials for the guilty who cause unnecessary deaths all over the world and right here!

The instruction book they send you is huge and bewildering.

... "The Pet Goat".

it is, since he seems to know so much about it. He could go on live TV and pull up the website and 'splain the different options in his plain way of speaking so that everybody, even the simplest of us, could unnerstand it.

:sarcasm:

We got flimflammed with a bunch of jived bullshit that no one understands.

I can hear the pharmaceuticals companies country their blood money.

Love to see some Ole' 90 year old senior citizen beat the living snot out of junior.

"A daunting task", my ass. They know when they're being scammed.

But, maybe they're counting on the elderly's confusion to sign up anyways.

What's the AARP's opinion on this?

Thom said that they spent the better part of a day working at it ... unsuccessfully.

So Sad. When folks like Hartmann can't get it figured out, what chance does the average senior have?

holes in coverage, confusing paperwork, no incentives for the drug companies to be competitive or reduce costs. This thing will be a big flop and the repukes will try and use it as an advertisement against universal health care. Once again, ordinary citizens will be the losers.

is that "ordinary citizens" will believe this administration created something special for the elderly, disabled, and poor, when it does nothing for them and creates another boondoggle for the "Insurance Companies"! Their stocks are already surging!

Whatever happened to that idea of extending the deadline for signing up? Not that more time is going to reall help anyone figure this sh*t out. Of course they want everyone to sign up so corporations can get those retirees off the insurance roles. This was expected to be big win for the drug companies too, wasn't it? As long as the majority of seniors signed up right away so they didn't only end up with the poor and sickly on the plan that is.

From what I can gather, some insurance companies cover some drugs, other companies cover other drugs? What if you don't take anything, but want a policy just in case? What if the doctor changes your medicine and . . . oops . . . wrong company? At the very least, every company should cover every drug.

These elected representatives, are unable to understand or explain this drug program to their very own constituents. It should be a requirement that all elected officials be required to use the same program as those they gift to their consistutents.

i have spent nearly three months trying to pick the one that suits myself.. i only take one blood pressure med, and i have determined that there are several providers that don't require the $250.00 deductible, but the cost is around $21.00 per month premium and $12.00 for a 30 day supply of generics for the plan that i am likely to join...but there are things that people really have a problem with, such as "formulary" lists and out of pocket. the idea that with a 60 day notice, your drug can be removed, and the fact that drugs bought in canada (and anywhere outside the USA) do not count towards your out of pocket costs.