Yesterday, I posted in Blue Ohio about an ad U.S. Chamber of Commerce ran for Steve Chabot, congressional candidate from Cincinnati. The ad credited Chabot with voting for the Medicare changes that took effect the first of the year. The ad was pulled off because Chabot actually voted against the bill.
The same ad is running for Mike DeWine. The ad talks about how "great" the new Medicare program is and to urge votes for DeWine for supporting this bill. Check it out:
Today's Washington Post shows us that the new Medicare program is still hurting millions of seniors around this country:
The calls are starting to come in from shocked or angry seniors. They have just learned that their Medicare drug plans are maxing out on early coverage and that they must now spend $2,850 from their own pockets before coverage will resume.
"I can't pay for my medications," one man told Howard Houghton of the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging the other day. "What do I do?"
Over the next five months, several million Americans with high medicine costs could find themselves in a similar bind. The gap in insurance, popularly called the doughnut hole, is an unusual provision in most of the private plans offered in Medicare's new Part D prescription drug program. Advocates for the elderly say it is misunderstood and problematic.
"There's nothing sweet about the doughnut hole," said Deene Beebe, spokeswoman for the New York-based Medicare Rights Center.
