Here’s a little portion of the transcript from a Medicare Part D promotional event held by the president at a senior center in Sun City, Florida yesterday.
Q Thank you. First, let me say, I think a lot of people will be helped by this program.
THE PRESIDENT: They will —
Q A lot of people will be helped by the Medicare Part D program.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, thank you.
Q But I think there’s major deficiencies in it that I think we’d like to hear some comments from you on. The first major issue, I think the program is going to be a lot more expensive both to the user and to the taxpayer than it needs to be, because we don’t allow Medicare to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies. This could wind up costing the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years.
Another thing, the insurance companies are allowed to change their formulary once a person is in the program; a person is not allowed to get out until the end of the year. This is a legalized bate-and-switch operation by the insurance companies. How many of them are doing it, I don’t know, but it’s a danger for our seniors.
Third, I have a report here from Families USA indicating that the poorest people that are affected by this program are not being helped.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I just —
Q Not helped — either they’re not signed up, they’re not being helped compared to the benefits they were getting under a combination of Medicare and Medicaid.</p.
So, finally, I think there are several major changes that should be made in the program. Number one, let Medicare negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies. Number two, stop the formulary switch. If we do that, by reducing the costs, I think we can possibly reduce the size or even eliminate the doughnut hole that people are exposed to.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, thanks.
Q And I think — (laughter.) One last thing — okay. If we don’t bring our costs down this way, we’re never going to control health care costs in the U.S. And we’re subsidizing the pharmaceutical companies, and we’re subsidizing health costs in every other country around the world because every other country negotiates directly with the pharmaceutical companies. (Applause.)
What the questioner didn’t know is that even while he was making his points, president Bush and his closest advisors were busy creating new realities where carefully screened audience members at promotional events don’t suddenly notice that the president’s policies are all for shit. This one small strand of an old discarded reality may have escaped and found the light of day, but that was was done by design and was intended to toy with our tiny minds.
(Via Froomkin)