For those who don’t know, I’m disabled with autoimmune disease, so I’m on SSDI & Medicare. I just trucked out to the mailbox and got my Medicare & You: 2006 handbook, which told me on the front cover, “This year it’s different.”
No kidding.
What’s different is the drug coverage benefit — and I use those last two words in ways that would make Noah Webster roll in his grave.
Right now I have no drug coverage and I’m paying about $40/month average in meds (more when circumstances warrant), but as my illness progresses, I will definitely be paying more every month. Possibly much more. I get $814/month from SSDI and budgeting is already a work of faith held together by a string and a dirty joke.
The cost of enrolling in Medicare’s Rx plan is approximately $40/month. It has a $250 deductible, and after that, coverage is as follows:
- –I pay 25% of my yearly drug costs from $250 to $2,250, then
- –I pay 100% of the next $2,850, then
- –After I’ve come out of pocket $3,600 (which is pretty much impossible so long as I still have pesky little daily needs like food and shelter), I pay 5%
Sounds like I should just blow this off, right? Enroll later when it will make fiscal sense? BUT NO. Because as the handbook also tells me, “You can first join a drug plan from November 15, 2005 to May 15, 2006. In most cases, if you don’t join during this period, your next chance to join will be November 15, 2006 to December 31, 2006, and you will have to pay a penalty.” (emphasis mine)
Grr. Now instead of trading wisecracks with the hilariously perverted ladies & gents from the FBC, I have to spend the rest of the afternoon digging up more information so I know whether or not I can find a way through this maze that doesn’t involve my begging for tips while I stroll naked through the town square.
Please people, let’s find a way to wrest control back from the Republicans ASAP so they are no longer allowed to “help” people. I’m afraid those of us on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder can’t take much more of their “help”.
But it needed to be said and it seemed like too much for an open thread. Consider it also a community service message so people will be reminded that the disabled in their lives might be needing some extra help.
Great diary, keep them coming!
I’m sorry to hear how George’s MediScare “help” is affecting you, I’m sure there are some people here at BooTrib that can give you more info on the semantics.
Best wishes from Pima County (and recommended)!
Thanks, ManE.
I’m grateful too because I know I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a little bit of money in the bank that I inherited when my mom passed away, and I have a roommate who helps me like she’s my personal Guardian Angel. This whole experience is one of the reasons I dedicate as much time as I can to progressive politics, actually — I know other people have it much harder than me, and while I’m living in the wealthiest country in the world I will keep right on demanding that we don’t let people go homeless and die just because they have a bad run of luck.
Some suggestions that have worked for me:
I use drugstore.com for most of my drug purchases, affiliate of Rite Aid, and deep discounts from in store prices.
Also I have ordered asthma inhalers online from Canada, Mexico and England so far, at a discount as well and no prescription. These are American manufactured drugs.
I am opting out of both medicare and SS…may change my mind later but so far I want no part of that system…not that I have extra money, I don’t, no insurance either (can’t qualify at least for a reasonable price). My disgust with the medical system (as well as most other systems)in this country know no bounds.
Thanks for the advice, Diane. I feel much the same way.
I suspect I will decide to opt out of the drug benefit for now and take my chances with the penalty later. You never know, sometimes if you procrastinate a thing for long enough, then circumstances change and you can get out of having to do the thing at all. Maybe we can get a decent Class of ’06 change on Capitol Hill and exchange this awful “benefit” for one that serves people instead of corporations.
What you say sounds reasonable to me..I sure hope they do change it…and maybe medicare can actually buy drugs at mass purchase discount rates….what a concept, too plain and simple for this government.
I am so sorry you are going through this.
We were without any insurance for 3 years.
It’s a nightmare.
And one of our top priorities for whether or not we’ll support a particular politician. Of course, they have all the bennies.
If it’s good enough for them and their families – it should be good enough WE THE PEOPLE
(((((((((Indy))))))))))))
Thanks, DJ. My very best to you and yours, as well.
This is small potatoes compared to when I first got sick. I was 29, just about to start my senior year in college, and suddenly I had a long list of very frightening neurological symptoms. The scariest was that I couldn’t walk. I had to drop out of school, of course, and when I couldn’t afford the COBRA for my student insurance, I spent the next 2 years with no insurance waiting to qualify for Medicare while no one knew what the hell was wrong with me.
It’s been 6 years since onset now, though, and I’m fairly well adjusted. They’re finally figuring out what the illness has been (I’ll post my rant about the rest of the medical community on another day, lol), and I finally have some meds to help.
But the whole thing has shown me up close and personal that our healthcare system is truly broken, FUBAR. We need universal healthcare, and we need it now.
This is shit. Not you, this slashing and gutting of Medicare, and further, the way they package it as being something positive. My mom has spent the better part of the past year worrying about her Medicare and calling one of us every time she got a new pamphlet about how great it’s going to be because she doesn’t understand a word of it. She’s a heavy smoker (fuck, fuck, fuck those tobacco companies) and has COPD and is on various medicines to help her breathe, and near as we can figure out, she’ll pay almost double when the new “benefits” kick in.
Here I was trading perverted wisecracks with you all day and didn’t even notice this diary. I wish you luck and let’s kick these evil bastards out of office.
It seems as if we have a lot of medically challenged BooTribbers. I hate it that this administration throws so many extra and unnecessary challenges at them.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mom’s health. When my mom died a few years ago, she had lung cancer (among other things). I hope your mom is able to be comfortable, at least, and get as much of the care she needs as possible.
I constantly worry about the ability of Medicare patients — myself included — to comprehend the convoluted information we’re given. And again, I am fortunate to have had the background experience of running the office of a small law firm when I was younger wherein we had cases all the time with the government, so I at least have a remote chance at figuring this stuff out just from practice.
It’s a setup, really. You get sick and someone tells you, “Here just take this booklet and it will tell you everything you need.” And you feel grateful — “Oh, it’s a Booklet of Answers, how wonderful.” Then you get the damn thing home and it’s all in government-ese, reading just like the IRS instructions for passive loss carryforwards. And sick people can’t work that out, half the time we have trouble working out whether we want a banana or an apple for breakfast. So then you do something wrong, try to fix it, and the government people are all like, “Didn’t you read the booklet?”
The real question is… Would Democrats help people differently?
As long as Reid, Biden, Lieberman, Casey, and their cronies are in charge, I don’t believe they would.
As I think you know, Egarwaen, I share your concerns. I have been increasingly frustrated with what I see as the party’s pandering to corporate interests at the expense of representing the people for whom they are supposed to work. I don’t know whether I think the whole system is irretrievably broken — still processing that — but I do think that a Dem win in ’06 and even in ’08 won’t mean very much change unless the party power structure is shaken to the core.
Hard to tell if the new crop of progressives running in 06 will be able to make things better. But when I see one with this as the first thing on their web site
It gives me enough hope to want to make sure he gets elected and can try.
That’s from Ted Ankrum’s web site. He’s running against Mike McCaul – vile DeLay flunky in the TX-10 district.
John Courage, running in TX-21 against the DeLay flunky who currently (mis)represents me, wants to extend Medicare to the currently uninsured. I don’t know if that’s the answer, but at least he wants to try to address the question. In the years that I had no health insurance, I would have killed for Medicare. And of course, the one liberal rep we already have, Lloyd Doggett (TX-26? 28? I forget) is strongly in favor of Universal Health Care. His daughter is a doctor – I’ve heard her speak of how heartbreaking her job can be working in the ER, and the issue is not only something he’s always supported, I think it’s gaining extra urgency with him because of her.
I will work for Ankrum in 10, you work for Courage in 21 and we should be good to go, eh? I read through Ted’s website yesterday and like what I see — I am going to send him an email with a few questions I have and see what happens….this is where people have misunderstood me in my comments here the past week — I’m not saying I will never vote for a dem. ever again, I am saying that individual candidates needs to EARN my support, that they will not get it simply by having a D behind thier name …
I voted for Llyod Doggett over and over again, because he showed me over and over again that he was in there fighting, and still is, I am just not allowed to vote for him anymore.
Thanks for the info., J!!
All I know about Ankrum is what I read on his website, but he looks like your kind of guy. An “ordinary folk,” obviously not a polished politician type. I’m glad you’re going to check him out – since (it appears) that he’s not an experienced politician, “ordinary folks” like you and I could probably have a lot to offer him in the way of help on his campaign.
And yes, unseating Smith is probably my top priority as far as where I’ll be putting my volunteer efforts. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to John Courage several times and I really like him. He’s a teacher, another “ordinary folk,” but this is his second run against Smith (he didn’t run last Nov, but did the time before that), so he’s learned a lot about campaigning. And now that the district has a chunk of Austin in it, I think he has a really good chance of winning.
If I have any time or energy left over, I’ll probably do whatever I can for Ankrum. I would love it if DeLay’s appalling redistricting ploy just blew up in the R’s faces. Instead of unseating Lloyd (which was one of DeLay’s main goals) they end up losing the other two Austin seats.
Every time I see him around town, he’s always surrounded by people bewailing the fact that he’s no longer their rep. He says, “I know you can’t vote for me anymore, but I’ll still vote for you.” I love that.
Thanks for the info on TX, Janet.
I’m still outraged that we can’t even get Medicare to the disabled! The waiting period is 2 years after you become disabled to qualify to pay for the coverage — the government claims this is because they assume you have some personal resources to deplete but I suspect they are just hoping many people will die before qualifying.
At this point I think universal healthcare is the only answer, but I’d be fine with being proven wrong so long as whatever we got actually worked.
I like bitching about Bush on an academic level. My family has been so lucky not to be directly affected in ways like this (we just take the general screwing that everyone gets in a corrupt administration like this). But listening to your personal story makes it much more painful. Fucking bastards. Heaping billions of dollars at this fucking war — and leaving us fucked.
I’m sorry. I’m working to change.
I deeply appreciate all the work you guys do, BostonJoe. Would that everyone else were equally as dedicated to the teachings of Great Flying Spaghetti Monster. Ramen, brother. 😉
May his noodly appendage touch and heal us all. Pastafarians unite.
The prescription charge for drugs in the England is currently £6.50 ($11.45) per item regardless of actual cost. Certain groups get these free anyway (young, over 60, those on some welfare benefits and or with certain long-term illness). Drugs administered during hospital in-stays are free to all. Those with chronic long-term ilnesses can get a “season ticket” in advance costing £93.20 a year ($164).
The average cost of a NHS prescription to the Government is put at around £9 ($16). A lot of this is due to the se of generic drugs when the patent expires or bulk negotiation. The argument is always given that “socialist” medecin means less innovation and drug development. This does not seem to be the view of the industry orgaqnisation the Association British Pharamaceutical Industries. This leaflet in .pdf format is worthwhile downloading as the ABPI are actually praising the relationship with the NHS to provide innovation and research. It answers the arguments of those who claim that reducing drugs costs or having a subsidised scheme would damage the industry.
Thanks for the information, Londonbear.
The argument is always given that “socialist” medecin means less innovation and drug development.
I’m always skeptical of this argument (and I realize you’re not forwarding it), because it seems to presume that profit drives the industry in a way that helps people instead of corporations, and I just don’t think that’s the case here in the US either. Our drug companies are indeed turning a profit, it’s just that we have 40 different kinds of treatment for baldness and erectile dysfunction but treatment for MS patients is still sketchy technologically and still costs $15K/year.
If anyone wants extra credit, they can try to figure out how the hell an MS patient on SSDI & Medicare is supposed to get by, because I think even using the new math or doing your very best Michio Kaku impression will not make that equation work.
Indy — I have been trying to help my mom with this as well, but I can’t make head nor tails of all of it. She has various heath issues and many times our weekly phone call consists of me listening to her vent about her run-ins with the “health care” system and feeling helpless and angry about it. My mom is sometimes prideful (I don’t blame her, it’s a dingnity thing) and doesn’t share details and I constantly worry that people are fucking with her….
Thanks for sharing, and I hope that this new “help” doesn’t affect your health in a negative way!
This apparently hit a chord with some folks because I got emails from people last night sharing with me about their struggles. I read, and cried, and responded from the heart…but I felt helpless to contribute in any tangible way to helping with their problems, and as a citizen, I do feel a sense of community responsibility (as distinguished from personal responsibility) for them.
Maybe that’s one reason why doing political work is so hard and makes us all so intense and stressed — just like theoretical work, political work takes a very long time and a clinically insane amount of effort to generate any measureable change.
Anyway, thanks for your comments and well wishes Brin, I know you have so much on your plate all the time lately. I hope your mom is doing okay and I hope life has some really good surprises in store for you in the near future.
I’ve been trying to work through this with my mom as well and I just about got to the point of saying to hell with it because it’s such a mess — which made me wonder if that was really “accidental”. Wouldn’t be nice for the rethugs to get the props for offering the benefit and then make it so bad that people actually wouldn’t use it?
Fwiw, I don’t think you have to be too far into X-Files territory for that theory to make sense.
It sure would be nice to see an organized counter message about it coming from the Democrats…something about how badly the Republicans have mangled the policy, but then, too many Dems vote for bad policy, so there’s another brick wall in between sick people and adequate support/treatment.
In that article I just linked, Dianne Feinstein was quoted back in ’03 trying to argue that this bad bill was better than no bill, but in my circumstances — which are not uncommon — that just doesn’t seem to be the reality. I either have to pay more immediately in anticipation of needing to pay more later, or I have to pay even more later because I didn’t choose to pay more immediately. And Kerry claims to have “fought tooth and nail against” it but didn’t bother to vote against the bill.
To his credit, Tom Daschle was right about it and did oppose it, but I never thought he was very effective at convincing people that he was right. And unfortunately, in US politics, the ‘sell’ itself is just as important as the thing you’re selling — clearly, another part of the overall problem.
Consumer Prices Rise Sharply
Yeah, I know. But from the article:
Social Security payments to more than 50 million retired and disabled workers will rise 4.1 percent in January to help those recipients keep up with inflation, which was driven higher over the last year by rising energy costs.
and,
For senior citizens enrolled in Medicare, part of that increase will be consumed by rising health insurance premiums, which are deducted from Social Security checks
OK, it’s not much. In fact, it’s pathetic, but at least the COLA adjustment is based on a realistic index like the CPI and not on some Bush league mumbo-jumbo. At least there’s some little extra to help defray rising costs.
Yeah, I know.
Our ability to make lemonade from lemons is getting stretched beyond imagination.
Every little bit can indeed help, dblhelix, especially when your entire net worth is comprised of approximately 3.5 units worth of “little bit”. We do get those COLAs every year, and someone (probably some overworked and totally stressed out liberal) had the good sense to get language into the law that doesn’t let them raise our Medicare premiums more than they raise our COLAs.
And no kidding about the increasing difficulty of making lemonade! Way back in high school, my first girlfriend used to twist another one of those hard times cliches thusly:
🙂
The bad news is that you can only get so much money..and if your SSD goes up too much they will take money away from my SSI…nice huh.
Exactly right. I don’t qualify for any other benefits — including SSI or Medicaid — because the $814/month I get from SSDI is over the income threshold.
Nothing like keeping really poor people poor is there…it’s a real trap.
Like many commenting here I am also on SSD and SSI and had followed closely when repugs were working on getting this travesty of a prescription bill passed.
I can remember reading article after article by reporters who were trying to ‘explain’ this almost unexplainable piece of crap ‘reform’.
Because my two checks-one is my SSD-a fucken whopping 550.00 a month)and my SSI here in CA. is 282.00 a month (in other states instead of the SSI I was on food stamps)means that because of low(hahaha)income I get Medicaide here to cover my pills-or at least what are approved as not all medications are on the “LIST”…such as migraine prescriptions..not fucken approved. And I’m very lucky that my sister pays the 70.00 a month for that.(I basically get monoxide poisoning when I lay down due to nerve damage around lungs which causes me not to breath out while sleeping and then wake up with migraines)
Of course if it wasn’t for my sister I wouldn’t have a life basically-she bought this computer, pays the monthly msn fee, among the many other things she pays for for me. And it really gripes me she can’t somehow get a tax break for all the money she spends on me every year. Then again if SS knew she was spending that much on me they’d take away some of my monthly payment.
I just got my Medicare book today and now will have to try and wade through it. The idea that so many older sick people are going to have to try and figure this out is criminal. I have a neuro-muscular disease(hereditary)and every day I have a small window of opportunity where I can basically think clearly then I get to ‘tired’ to think clearly for anything to complicated.
I suppose I ought to end this posting..it is rather meandering in itself but this fucked up ‘medicare prescription’ bill is one of the most egregiously wrong things the repugs along with some democrats have done..and they’ve managed to do a lot of fucked up stuff.
I can only hope that somehow this piece of shit bill is somehow rescinded, sooner rather than later before more/more people die due to not being able to afford prescriptions…unless that was the plan all along.
Thanks for sharing your story, chocolate ink. I’m so glad you’re able to get help from your sister.
And I agree with every word of the rest! Sometimes righteous outrage is the only appropriate response to something — I believe this is one of those things.
I’m extremely lucky that my sister and I(we’re 4 years apart)have always been almost like twins, we’re very, very close and that she does help me out. The best thing of course is that she does it automatically and never ever makes me feel as if I am a financial burden.
She’s helped me furnish my apt, gets dvd’s for me every week, buys groceries, clothes when needed, shoes even..pretty much everything. Every once in awhile I have panic attacks simply due to the fact about how much she is helping me and what would happen to me if she wasn’t. If I believed in guardian angels-she’s mine. All this and she’s my ‘baby’ sister to boot.
The very worst thing happening is that this neuro-muscular disease is hereditary and she is showing signs of this also(has for a long time really but they were very minor problems).
Being too ill to work enough to produce the bare minimum of income to survive is a terrifying experience overall, and I think I know what you mean about those panic attacks. Like I said upthread, my roommate helps me out a lot, and since my family’s not a good place for me to go for help, I don’t know what I’d do without her.
I’m so sorry to hear that your sister is also becoming ill. I just can’t seem to say it enough today: universal healthcare, universal healthcare, universal healthcare!
We’re hoping she stays basically the same as she is now-this neuro-muscular disease is different in everyone-some completely crippled up by it and others with such minor problems as to not even know they have it. We’re also pretty positive both my nephews(age 25 and 34)have this also.
Very good that you have someone that can help you out. People who are marginalized by disabilities are in pretty dire circumstances if they can’t get any help from family or friends that’s for sure-unless of course they are very wealthy to start with.
Another factor for me is that I do not look ‘sick’ and this makes many people still think maybe I’m just a hypochondriac or something..and also why I pretty much don’t mind being fairly confined to my apt.
I also think as you say that universal health care has to be implemented….not patch work fixes but to scrap everything and start completely over with a new and comprehensive plan for all Americans.
this administration…a scandal for every topic, i tell ya what: