Right after the first of the year I reported on the new prescription drug
program offered by Medicare. This program is essentially pushing low income
seniors and people with disabilities into HMOs. The new program, which took
effect January 1, has had a shaky start to say the least.

With numerous states issuing public health emergencies because seniors can
not get their much needed prescriptions. Now the President is even stepping in:

With tens of thousands of people unable to get medicines promised by
Medicare, the Bush administration has told insurers that they must provide a
30-day supply of any drug that a beneficiary was previously taking, and it
said that poor people must not be charged more than $5 for a covered drug.

The actions came after several states declared public health emergencies,
and many states announced that they would step in to pay for prescriptions
that should have been covered by the federal Medicare program.

Republicans have joined Democrats in asserting that the federal
government botched the beginning of the prescription drug program, which
started on Jan. 1. People who had signed up for coverage found that they
were not on the government’s list of subscribers. Insurers said they had no
way to identify poor people entitled to extra help with their drug costs.
Pharmacists spent hours on the telephone trying to reach insurance companies
that administer the drug benefit under contract to Medicare.

Many of the problems involve low-income people entitled to both Medicare
and Medicaid.

In a directive sent to all Medicare drug plans over the weekend, the Bush
administration said they “must take immediate steps” to ensure that
low-income beneficiaries were not charged more than $2 for a generic drug
and $5 for a brand-name drug.

In addition, it said insurers must cover a 30-day emergency supply of
drugs that beneficiaries were taking prior to the start of the new program.

In an interview yesterday, Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the
federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that “several
hundred thousand beneficiaries who switched plans” in December may have had
difficulty filling prescriptions in the last two weeks.

Article continues

here.

First off, the problem isn’t from people who “switched plans in December”. I
personally know of people who switched when the program was first announced in
November and are not able to get their medicines. Dr. McClellan seems to be
downplaying the problem and I suggest he gets off his butt and heads down to a
local pharmacy and sees first hand the problems.

I am fortunate to have a little insight into these problems as I have a
mother who works with seniors for a living. Her job is to help seniors get their
medicines and handle the paperwork for this new program. When enrollment was
first announced for the program, people took to the phones to get signed up. It
of course meant the phone systems were overloaded and even Medicare’s website
experienced numerous crashes from too many connections. Dr. McClellan is in a
sense trying to pass blame to those who waited but the fact of the matter is
people had to wait because of a lack of planning on the part of his agency.

This new program DOES NOT save seniors money. In fact it costs them more now
then it did before for their life dependent medications. The new bill forced
seniors into HMOs and also forced drug manufacturers to end their little known
programs called Perscription Assistance Plans (PAP). These PAPs were set up to
provide low income seniors with their important medicines for free. Under the
law the recipient could not get any aide for their medicines. With the new
program seniors must choose aide and that disqualifies them for the programs.

I find it interesting that Bush is now stepping in. This story has been on
the front page of major news papers for two weeks now. Its good to see him
wanting to help but it appears to be more of a show than anything right now.
Democrats have been complaining about the program and all the sudden Republicans
are listening? What changed their mind on this. I’ll tell you what changed their
minds. This is an election year and even more important, it is a mid-term
election year. That means that these very seniors who are getting screwed over
by Republicans right now might vote against them. Exit polling data shows that
seniors account for roughly 35% of the vote in mid-term elections. In electoral
demographics, that is a major populace.

It is also interesting how Bush has ordered the insurance companies to supply
a 30 day emergency supply of drugs. One of the big arguments in Katrina was the
President couldn’t order private companies to help. Remember how they said they
couldn’t get water to the people because they were running out of bottled water?
Well right there proves the President could of taken action and ordered these
companies to divert shipment to the Gulf. Again Bush has just played politics
with the lives of Americans.

One item I have come to learn on the new program and would like to share is
about the choice of pharmacies. If you or someone you know is having problems
with your prescriptions and go to one of the large corporate pharmacies like Wal-Greens
or CVS then look at changing. The small, locally owned pharmacy is a much better
choice. The large pharmacies are dependent upon what information they have in
the computer. This means the prices are set in there and you are stuck paying
them because the person behind the counter is nothing but an appendage of the
computer system. The local pharmacies are able to make and change their rules,
meaning they are more out to adapt to help seniors. If you should only be paying
$10 for your prescriptions and the large pharmacy is saying it will cost $50
then get your prescriptions and go. It is the best thing sign of hope right now.