The New Medicare "benefit" is a sham

I called my Mom in NY yesterday to wish her a Merry Christmas, and I asked if she was signed up for the new program yet, since she just had her gall bladder out. She said no, she was staying with EPIC, which is a state program for poor Seniors of New York state.

My Mom had appplied for the waiver, but you can only make $1300 and they make $1400 a month. There is a $250 deductible on the new program. This new program isn't really gonna help people very much at all.

made to confuse. Bush can say he's a wonderful guy for helping old folks buy their drugs cheap while, at the same time, he ensures they'll keep paying full tilt to the drug companies because they can't figure out the plan.

Perhaps I slept through soemthing I shouldn't have, but that is flat confusing. I stayed with the VA, the devil I know.

I'm more than positive that the $250 deductible will be waived in you Mother's case because of her income. The state will pay for her part D and she'll get her meds at no cost.

The people that are indeed gonna take a screwing on this new program are the middle class folks.

Your Mom will be okay!

for the waiver. Not sure if EPIC is gonna expire or what. That costs #31 a month so maybe NY state will keep it going.

For several years now, Massachusetts has had a state program called Prescription Advantage to help low-income seniors afford their prescriptions. My Mom has been on it for a few years. And I have to commend the folks who run that program with how well they've helped their seniors get signed up for the Medicare benefit. They've done all the work, and have chosen programs that best match the meds each person currently takes. And anything that the Medicare program doesn't pay for, Prescription Advantage will pay for as the secondary insurance. When she called Medicare for help figuring out the paperwork, they basically told her to get lost, that they didn't have time to deal with her. When she called Prescription Advantage, they calmed her down, told her that they were taking care of everything, that her card would be sent to her soon, and not to believe anything the folks at Medicare told her.

even signup for the plan. If something is not done to make it accessible and usable, it will be cancelled. As bad as it is, it is at least a start and it will be a shame if it is abolished when it just needs to be fixed.

If any of you have low income relatives, please let them know that there are enhanced benefits for folks that meet the low income criteria. I don't the numbers in front of me but an individual with $1300 income a month would no doubt qualify. You can go to the AARP or the CMS website and get the specific details.

For example, my annual prescription drug costs run round $200 -- never more than $240 -- mostly for blood-pressure medication and occasional antibiotics. But the new "benefit" will cost me $22 per month -- $264 per year -- plus the $250 deductible: this more than doubles my prescription drug costs to $514 per year. And my situation is typical: all seniors with comparably lower drug costs are effectively being forced by the Bush Administration to pay a penalty for being in good health -- literally, a Good Health Tax.

And signing up is mandatory: a penalty of one percent of your pension per month -- for the rest of your life -- if you don't sign up by May 2006.

The purpose, of course, is to reward the prescription drug industry for its generous support of DemoPublican politicians: thus the provisions that forbid group purchasing and thereby require payment of maximum wholesale and retail prices. Quoth The Washington Post: "The new Medicare drug benefit fails to deliver drug prices as low as those found at...high-volume U.S. pharmacies, a congressional report said yesterday."

The rest of the story, published November 23rd, is here (free registration may be required):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201662.html

Which is why at every opportunity I have started calling Medicare Part D the Medicare Prescription Drug Lord Benefit -- for that is exactly what it is: the most outrageous example in U.S. history of taxing the poor to benefit the wealthy.

Moreover, hope the Democrats will change any of this is idiotic pie in the sky: the Democrats are as beholden to the prescription drug lords as are their Republican counterparts. How do you suppose the Medicare Prescription Drug Lord Benefit was enacted? Why do you suppose the Clinton Administration deliberately sandbagged national health-care reform by holding the hearings in secret and tying the enactment of single-payer insurance to forcible disarmament of the civilian population? Surely no one believes seasoned political operatives like the Clintons could make such an error "accidentally."

No, the bitter fact is that we seniors are permanently fucked -- robbed specifically to put more money in the pockets of people who are already obscenely wealthy.


(Edit: head changed to avoid apparent agreement with factually incorrect post above.)