Despite statements from many congresscritters saying that it is necessary to extend the extension period for Medicare D(isaster), gwb and the republicans are refusing to do so. One of the most recent is from Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez as many are confused about the Medicare D(isaster) and the number of different prescription plans offerred. In New Jersey, there are 45 different plans.
In North Carolina, Congressman Etheridge calls for an extension to sign up for the “benefits”. He calls the program “intentionally confusing, so no one will sign up”, and asks that instead of May 15 as the deadline, December 31 be the final date to enroll. More info re: North Carolina available here. (Thanks, meagert!)
more re: an extension below
Congressman Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland favors an extension of the enrollment period.
“Once again, this President refuses to listen to the concerns of the 42 million Americans who are Medicare beneficiaries and who need help navigating through the flawed program…
…this President refuses to listen to the concerns of the 42 million Americans who are Medicare beneficiaries”…”
Assuring that our most vulnerable Americans have convenient access to a high-quality, affordable prescription drug plan should be our number one priority. This President and the Republican majority seem more concerned about benefiting special interests.
“The Medicare Part D program was not set up to provide a meaningful benefit to seniors. It was set up first to benefit the pharmaceutical industry and then to benefit the insurance industry.”
However, none of the concerns of those who are forced to participate in Medicare D(isaster) get gwb’s attention. Instead, he is still making sales pitches that are designed to persuade his audience of the benefits of Medicare D(isaster) Claire McCaskill, who is challenging a Medicare D(isaster) supporter, Sen. Jim Talent.
McCaskill understands the confusion about Medicare D(isaster).
“I think it probably needs to be changed to Medicare Part F. I think the `D’ is too generous of a grade.”
Despite these concerns, legislative attempts to extend the enrollment period have failed. However, an amendment offered by Charles Grassley would give Michael Leavitt the authority to change the enrollment deadline, should he choose to exercise it.
But will he? Given his previous actions re: Medicare D(isaster), that is questionable, as his father made his money in the insurance business, and his lack of awareness re: the intricacies of the program.
Also, there is the mindset of this administration to consider.
To the government Medicare D is like a war.
They see there is going to be a number of acceptable losses. They don’t have to see torn and mangled bodies the news might show, because the news isn’t showing someone without their medicine who is dying slowly.
They accept the fact there will be collateral damage. Some people will do without for a while, but…
The measure of the drug benefit’s success is not whether the program is perfect on its first day but whether we solve the problems quickly. We are doing so, and the system is improving every day.
It appears to me to be the same rhetoric on Iraq. All is well, just stick with us and we’ll all pull through. It ain’t happening in Iraq and it ain’t happening with Medicare D. I wonder how much collateral damage is done to people who have to wait 30 – 60 – 90 days to get much needed medicine.
The machine is being greased.
Also, an amendment to allow Medicare D(isaster) beneficiaries to change plans once a year w/o penalty and extend the enrollment deadline to December 31 was defeated when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) — changed her vote to “no”. This resulted in a tie.
BTW, in 2002, it shows that Hutchinson received $914,887 from the Finance/Insur/RealEst and $232,704 from the Health sectors. After Medicare D(isaster) was passed, she recevied
$999,517 from the Finance/Insur/RealEst and $217,054 from the Health sectors. And now, that Medicare D(isaster) has taken effect, it shows tnat Hutchinson has recieved $814,353 from the Finance/Insur/RealEst and $138,250 from the health sectors.
available in orange and at My Left Wing
Think this is the one that I have hated to write the most!
but old people are both allowed and expected to repeat ourselves, so in order not to disappoint anyone, you deserve some very serious prize for your work on this issue. Not some funky blog prize, but something that comes with money, something respected, a Pullitzer, I think that might be still respected, Nobel doesn’t do journalists, I don’t think, but your relentless gnawing and tugging and digging for facts, your tireless and unfailing reminders to Americans that the individuals they think are their public servants, are in fact, in bed with their corporate masters, and one of the fruits of that union is this population reduction operation that from wherever he is today, makes Hitler drool with envy.
Thanks DF!
Know what? This all hit me last nite when I went to bed and I had trouble sleeping.
And, all of these crooks in the government have got to go! Thing is, will it happen?
I wholeheartedly agree with what Duct said Kid. By the way my pills this month were a hassle or rather I should say when my sister went to get them one of them has now been dropped-surprise surfucken surprise right! And no I didn’t get a two month warning letter from the insurance company which is what they state in their insurance booklet I was sent. So my sister knowing I need this particular drug-which rather goes without saying will be paying for it every month. I’m just lucky to have someone who will do this.
Now I have to get a hold of the insurance company and see if I can get them to reverse their decision-but I’m not holding my breath on that. Who the fuck knows what might happen next month.
I’m still concerned about this month–and am having some doubts as to whether or not I’ll get mine.
I do not worry on that score. I pity the entity that would try to keep you from them.
You have resources, not the least of which is the indomitable spirit which has kept you focused and working on ensuring that the denizens of the internets have the details of this operation stuck squarely in their faces on a regular basis, and while compared to the US mainstream, they may be a tiny minority, there are enough people intelligent enough to recognize the importance of your work, and if worse came to worst, affluent enough to purchase the medicine for you, and generous enough to do so.
Your position is quite unique, however, and there are millions of people who have not even the resourcefulness and assertiveness to call their local TV station to present themselves as a human interest story.
Most of the people who will be exterminated are people who are very ill to begin with, and poor besides. As you yourself have pointed out, they do not have computers, and I will venture that many of them comprehend what the internet is through a glass darkly.
BoJo has given me an idea. What if people sent to their politicians a single aspirin tablet, with a note to the effect that while aspirin is cheap, prescription medications are not, and the suggestion that since they have been so blessed with such a lucrative employment, and are likely heavily invested in defense stocks, which are performing magnificently, that it would be very good for their image if they were to hie themselves to a pharmacy in their district, and spend a few days there, purchasing medicines for those they voted should perish for lack of it.
I like the idea of sending an aspirin Duct…hmmm. As for going to local news stations, I tried that..many years ago. My sister had to half carry me in to both places and both stations were supremely uninterested and didn’t even want to hear what I had to say about being denied correct health care at that time. Truly horrible experiences with news channels here in my area.
Now I am really starting to worry!
See, the thing is, that epilepsy and a traumatic brain injury show no visible effects of disability…I have heard so much of the, “You don’t look disabled, get a job and stop ripping off the system.” bullshit. Plus, I am not a senior citizen or a vet–both populations always get a receptive reception.
Thing is, I also don’t fit the stereotype of meek disabled person in an able-bodied society. In other words, I am NOT properly grateful to a social service system that consists of do-nothing state employees who constantly whine about their caseloads and always answer a ? w/”I don’t know…call this number” or “That’s not my job” or “The paperwork hasn’t been completed” (especially when I make copies to show that is has). Hell, it is their job to know and to complete their end of the paperwork!
Heard a new one from two agency directors, “If we help you, we have to help everyone.”
Swear to God!
now. See my reply to chox.
While the Medicare D(eath) story is perceived, and does, impact mostly elders, as you frequently point out, the fact that it also impacts millions who are not elders serves to emphasize how wide a swath of people ARE affected by it.
People like to send letters and faxes to their politicians, what if along with the aspirin, people who are at risk as a result of Medicare D(eath) sent direct requests to their politicans to purchase their medications for them, and made the request public, posting it on the internet as well as copying it to local media…one could even include the asset disclosure statement that all politicians are required to make…
People like to send letters and faxes, but, as I have experienced on several occasions, will do NOTHING more than that, despite having previously said otherwise.
Hey Kid-know what you mean about not fitting the stereotype of disabled person..as of right now I look perfectly healthy…as for the whole going to the news channels here-that was so incredibly depressing to say nothing of the several year campaign I had waged with letters etc to all appropriate politicians, news, etc etc. I had one health care worker actually tell me that I was too intelligent for someone who was poor and that pissed off doctors and that I should pretend to be very very dumb and pretend they were godlike and then gradually after maybe 6/7 visits I could start suggesting things for my health care that I knew were right but in a way to make them think it was there idea….the other suggestion was that I should move out of the state as maybe I was being black balled(having possibly to do with my letters to medical boards that were also ignored) here and try and start over with doctors in different state-yeah like I could just pick up and move considering at the time I was so disabled I couldn’t even cut my own food or walk-and no money anyway…I’m just venting here about how when you’re poor no one wants to listen to you or take you seriously-you can’t get help if you can’t get people to listen to you to start with…
when you’re poor no one wants to listen to you or take you seriously-you can’t get help if you can’t get people to listen to you to start with…
If you ever try to play dumb, your words are used against you. And I know just what you mean by being blackballed. (long story about that one) Like I said downthread, I am beginning to think that I may have to leave MI!
All of the paperwork is transferrable, and I have a Section 8 housing voucher…So, I am seriously thinking of where to go, but, then the question is the moving money.
I never did take that advice to play dumb but I did and do watch what I say to doctors or make sure I think my replies through very carefully. As I’ve found out from my medical records-which are a godawful mess of inaccuracies and some downright lies which came about with my interaction from scumbag doctors… Everyone should have copies of their own medical records and I’d be willing to bet they’d be appalled at the inaccuracies and mistakes in them. Which other doctors read and take as gospel.
I know I don’t have any good tips for you as you seem to be doing everything you can yourself but I hope to god things do work out for you-isn’t it time one of us wins the fight against city hall-so to speak.
Hope so too. But am beginning to have serious doubts.
Because of the millions of people – and families being impacted, and as a tie-in to the recent “pork report” or whatever the official name is, that the news media always likes to tout, all the various programs on which tax money is spent, and the medical treatment situation has become so extreme that even the rich are beginning to worry about it, there was a story on that aspect the other day, Street Kid also linked to it in a previous diary.
And the more calls the local stations receive from people suggesting themselves as human interest stories, the more that will indicate that increased coverage of the issue could increase ratings…
But, sending Preparation H might be more appropriate!
And a thanks to Family Man who appropriately described the mindset!
In the context of the “illegal immigration furor” add one more hoop for the poor:
“US rule demands proof of citizenship for healthcare.”
Thanks! W/most of the energy going into immigration rights, seems to me this is great to tie immigration and health care together.
Hey this might explain why I haven’t been sent a new medicaid card which is supposed to be automatic for me and I’m sending off a form for it which in the meantime has caused me a big problem at one place for not having the new medicaid card. I thought maybe it had something to do with switching over some of us dual medicare/medical people to the wonderful new drug program..who knows what the fuck is the problem really.
All that is going on is that people are being buried in paperwork in the hope that they will give up. Call the papers!
I think there will be a soaking in of the damage of this. I have a certain in-law, mindless Repub (that is, smart person, non-thinker about politics.) Distressed when her small, lovely hospital would not take her now that she was a medicare patient. Had difficulty finding a physician for the same reason. She takes a taxol-type drug, and I am certain her cost is likely to sky-rocket. .
All this has been a shock to her system. How could this be!
She doesnt’ yet connect this to the current greedmongers in office. She’d better, if she wants her situation to improve!
Did a few earlier ones on prices of cancer rx’s that I know you read (and thanks for the links,BTW)…like you said, she’d better!
SK:
This is off topic but Bush came to MO yesterday to tout the Medicare Drug Plan. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at statewide coverage he gets for these visits in states other than Michigan so I thought I’d give you links to the coverage by the various state newspapers.
St. Louis a blue dot in a red state.
Kansas City the blue dot on the other side of the state. Also had multiple pieces of coverage here and here.
Jefferson City the state capital (which is where he appeared) was more interested in the protestors.
Springfield, Missouri Republican heartland and homeland of John Ashcroft.
Joplin, Mo. republican heartland.
Columbia, Mo home of the University of Missouri and its school of journalism had multiple stories about the visit most of which mentioned the plan here and here and here and here and here. And the other paper also covered it.
Some papers picked up the Associated Press version.
And here’s the NYTimes coverage.
Thanks! MI’s coverage is a joke–constant budget cuts! Seriously thinking of moving, as soon as I figure out where…
A thought crossed my mind (yes, I think I still have one, though the last five years have tied it in knots). If the deadline for signing up for Plan D[isaster] is not extended and the 1% a month penalty is imposed on those signing up later, who gets that money? In most cases, the cost of the program is being deducted from Social Security checks, so it stands to reason that the penalty percentage isn’t going to be passed along to the insurance companies. Isn’t this just a hidden tax on an elderly confused population? If the deadline is extended, it would only delay what could become a windfall to Washington. I’m sort of surprised that they didn’t just set the program up so that the penalty money was deducted every month from the checks of those who haven’t enrolled.
That’s a good one. I assumed that it would go to the inurance carriers, as dual-eligibles, such as chocolate ink and myself were auto-enrolled, leaving those w/higher incomes (although not always that much higer) be hit w/that.
BTW, it has occasionally been referred to as a tax for not enrolling on time. And, it is a lifetime tax, too!
I’m thinking this one out as I type and am not linking. In Jan., computer problems were the justification for the majority of the screw-ups, then, it was later blamed on the population that was unable to understand the complexities of Medicare D(isaster), then, the legislation itself, then Waxman blamed the 2003 Congress, also remember something vague about health care professionals, and there is the ligigation…
Now, gwb, leavitt et al have been touring the country getting people to sign up, and there have been a few stories here and there re: the wonders of Medicare D(isaster),
You know, I think you are right about the $$ going to the feds–maybe to reimburse the states for the emergency $$ that was spent earlier in the year to pick up the tab for rx’s for people…
But, even the $$ spent on reimbursements wouldn’t cover all of the tax, and now I am wondering: Is it possible that this will eventually be another funding mechanism for the rx companies to get grant $$? And would the same be true of the non-profits that are supposedly assisting in the sign up process?
But, there is $$ going to DC, and, if the insurance companies get it DESPITE all of the screw ups that were blamed on the computers, that would show that original excuse was a bunch of crap…
Sorry that I’m going in circles here, but now I am really wondering….
That was one that I never thought of until now!!!!
Thanks!