Anyone who has a family member who relies on Medicare for their health insurance knows what a disaster the GOP’s vaunted Medicare D drug plan has been for the nation’s seniors. If you don’t, let me refer you to the many excellent diaries previously posted here at Booman Tribune by our Go-To diarist on the subject, Street Kid.
She’ll tell you all you need to know about what a complete farce the program has been.
So how do our Republican Congressional leaders plan to deal with the mess they’ve made with Medicare D? Extend the time for seniors to sign up for the myriad of confusing drug plans, perhaps? Amend the legislation to permit Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with the major pharmaceutical companies in order to obtain the lowest possible prices? Prohibit insurers from eliminating drugs from their formularies if an otherwise eligible person needs the discontinued medication and can’t afford to purchase it on his or her own?
Well, not exactly. Like most failed policies and programs the Republicans have created over the course of the last 5 years, they’ve decided to attack it by doing what they do best: PUBLIC RELATIONS!
In preparation for the upcoming recess, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) assembled an 18-member whip team last month to ensure that her GOP colleagues would get out the message on the plan.
As of yesterday afternoon, members of the conference had already scheduled more than 200 town hall meetings with their constituents to explain the plans. […]
Pryce has made the prescription-drug plans a hallmark of Republican outreach during the upcoming two-week recess. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan were the guest of a pre-conference breakfast last Wednesday to discuss the plans, and Gary Andres, from Dutko Worldwide, was a guest yesterday to discuss outreach on the drug plans.
The conference office has dedicated 23 pages of its recess manual to talking points and other advisories about the drug plan, including sample op-eds and guidelines for running a town hall meeting. The office has also distributed statistical information to each member office about the district and is sending daily bulletins to member offices about “success stories in Medicare,” conference spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said.
Yes, what better way to deal with a major meltdown in providing health care to our most vulnerable citizens than by deploying weapons of mass deception using the most up-to-date “talking points” the good folks at the RNC can devise. Victory is assured!
Because we all know how well this strategy has worked for them in Iraq, for example, now don’t we.
