Cross posted on Daily Kos
I’m in Los Angeles.
Yesterday, I went to the pharmacy of UCLA Medical center. I was there to pick up and pay for Lipitor and a hypertension drug for my mother.
Lipitor, a cholesterol lowering drug, is very expensive. A 30 day supply of the two drugs cost a little over $100.00.
When I got to the window the cashier and I had the following conversation.
Cashier:
“So who’s paying today?”
Me:
“I’m paying.”
Cashier:
“Is this for you?”
Me:
“No, for my mother.”
Cashier:
“Does she have Medicare D?”
Me:
“No. We’re too scared.”
Cashier:
“I don’t blame you. It’s awful, the poor seniors. It’s changing already.”
Me:
“What do you mean, changing?”
Cashier:
“Everyday something changes. The co-pays are going up, the drug lists change. It started at one price, the prices are inching up. They think no one will notice.“
Me:
“What do you mean inching up?”
Cashier:
“It’s some sort of bait and switch.”
Me:
“Come on! I thought it was supposed to be stable for one year.”
Cashier:
“Isn’t bait and switch when you buy one thing and get something different? No one knows anything. Seniors start to cry at the window. What should I say to them? We can’t follow it. There are hundreds of plans, they keep changing.”
Me:
“It sounds really bad.”
Cashier:
It’s a disaster. The doctors give them samples, if they can’t get what they need. It’s crazy. Why does the government go after seniors who need medicine and have only a little money?”
Me:
Ask Mr. Bush.
Cashier:
“That’s what I tell them. We need a new government. The seniors will tell Mr. Bush in November. You were smart to wait. Hopefully they’ll do a new plan. This one cannot survive. It’s not working.”
This is ground zero of the Medicare D catastrophe.
What fucking pornography.