NYT: President Tells Insurers to Aid New Drug Plan (Medicare emergency)

[DeepModem Mom]

President Tells Insurers to Aid New Drug Plan
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: January 16, 2006


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....

***

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....


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/politics/16drug.html?hp&ex=1137387600&en=0e8b68a86d92fec8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[TayTay]

1. Medicare: 'Doing a heck of a job there'

This is another Bush disaster. It's unbelievable how totally and completely incompetent these people are. I think the public is really starting to get upset and tired with their feeble excuses for governing. I have heard so many complaints about this Drug Program thatis it's like an epidemic.

[hedda_foil]

2. What do ya wanna bet ...

We're going to wind up paying for what * is now demanding, since it's not in their contracts, and we're going to wind up paying again to make up for it ... and most of the poor people still won't be covered.

[kayice]

20. Big Pharma is already raising the prices for everyone.....

same thing they did when the discount cards came out.....meanwhile, what is it? 43 million Americans don't have any health coverage. Big Pharma is the big winner here and Dubya scored for 'em.

[MGKrebs]

26. Oh hell yes.

If this is a mess now, it will be totally FUBAR in another week.
Are there forms for the pharmacists to do this?
What kind of recordkeeping will be required when they go to get reimbursed?
As usual, we see that they are only good at P.R., not actually implementing anything.

[cosmicdot]

3. he went on to say that Scottie's bro, Mark, was doing ...

a heckuva job over at Medicare
(edited to add) ... and, that the profiteering was going on as scheduled and planned.

[dchill]

4. I followed the link and read it...

Jesus Christ.

[Ian David]

6. I bet Mark McClellan is a fashion god! n/t

[MaineDem]

17. He didn't really say that, did he???

Good lord!!!

[az chela]

5. Hey they need the money for more wars

They dont care about the people in the us.We are just a liablilty to them

[rodeodance]

11. well, he is Scott's brother.

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.

[CAG]

7. Repubs alway set up govt programs to fail so they can tout

their propaganda about "faceless bureaucrats" ruining everyones lives and how the "free marketplace" (their name for big business corporatocracy) will take care of everything so much better.

[pfitz59]

8. Miltary retirees getting boned, too!

"Under the proposal, TRICARE Prime for under-65 retirees would increase to $750 (individual)/$1,500 (family) for officers and $450/$900 for enlisted by 2008 from the current fee of $230/$460"

http://www.naus.org/medical_news.htm

Thanks for supporting seniors and military retirees! Not!
Lying slimy hypocritical bastards!

[MO_Dem]

9. Thus speaketh King George! All hail!!

First he orders repig congress to get him a medicare drug bill--he don't care nothin' 'bout no details! Just get him a bill! So, the pharmaceutical companies write up a bill and the Hammer and puppet Roy Blunt twist arms and threaten recalcitrant members and hold the vote open all night long (almost!) 'til they get their bill passed. Now, they dare make excuses and King George orders (yet again) that somebody fix it pronto! This crap is just unbelievable! Lord, help us, please, please help us!

I believe the lovely honorable(?) Representative JoAnn Emerson voted for this bill, although pretending to be reluctant at first. I don't know if she will have a challenger this fall, but I sure as hell hope she does and this should be used against her.

[rodeodance]

10. jr 'mismanages' most things-then comes across as the savior

In Wisconsin, Gov. James E. Doyle, a Democrat, said: "It is outrageous how the federal government has mishandled this program and put thousands of lives at risk. As an emergency measure, the state will step in to ensure that no seniors go without lifesaving medicines."

The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said the mismanagement of the program had had "devastating consequences for seniors." In a letter signed by 34 other Democrats, Mr. Reid said, "We want to know why so many of our constituents have fallen through the cracks." Democrats had predicted many of the problems, he said.

The concern was bipartisan. Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, said many people had been "turned away at their pharmacies or told that they must purchase the drugs up front and seek reimbursement later."

"These are very vulnerable people who do not have the means to pay for their prescriptions and who cannot go without their medications," Mr. Gregg said.

[MO_Dem]

13. And all the tv newspeople are aghast at the mean Dems for making

poor, poor Mrs. Scalito cry! The repigs TOLD THEM that the mean old Democrats made her cry! Now THAT is NEWS! Poor old Granny out in Podunk Nowhere dies from lack of meds--who in D.C. cares? The repigs and media don't, FOR SURE!

Thanks for the quotes, rodeodance! This whole mess is just such a fraud upon the country that I can't hardly stand it!

[DeepModem Mom]

16. And W has never been held accountable for anything in his life...

ever.

[rodeodance]

12. kick

[TaleWgnDg]

14. America has the worst . . .

.

America. Shame.

America has the worst, the most expensive delivery system of healthcare on the planet. We incessantly pander off the delivery of our healthcare to corporations. Why? WHY? It's proven to be the most inefficient, most expensive manner in which to receive healthcare of all! Again, I query: WHY? Why do Americans continue to "trust" corporate America over government of and by the people? WHY?

[xchrom]

15. siphoning off tax payer money to private corporations

seems to have hit a snag -- another bush failure.

[donkeyotay]

18. They've spent billions on Republican data mining companies to snoop

but they couldn't manage FEMA in response to Katrina or manage to keep an accurate database for Medicare. Heckuva job of selling us out.
:nuke:

[kayice]

21. Apparently no one was home at FEMA for 11 days with the fires

in Oklahoma. Same old, same old. Heckva job, indeed. :(

[MountainLaurel]

19. Interesting

I hadn't heard of this before Al Gore mentioned this issue in his speech today, in talking about how the Misadministration was suppressing scientific information and data from expert sources on how much this program would cost and how it would operate.

[donkeyotay]

24. You would of had to have caught a Democrat on C-SPAN to know what

a travesty this bill was. I wrote an op-ed for the local paper in an attempt to inform the good, Republicans here, but the editor's response was silence. Maybe he should pull it out of the trash because it sounds prescient now. Bottom line is that the DU does a much better job of covering the issues than corporate media. Most people don't know about the withholding of information and the way false information was used to sway the needed Republican votes, and they don't know about how the vote was held open and a congressman was bribed (later denied) on the floor. The whole sorry bill can serve as the only case study we need on why the current system of corporate democracy is killing the American people.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. An absolute disaster courtesy of those unable to govern

They spent years trying to concoct some way to enrich their buddies without out and out killing seniors, and were still unable to do it. Their fantasies are killing people, and inevitably smack into the hard, cold wall of reality. I usually reserve this phrase for their other theater of fantasy as it smacks i9nto the real, but I think it is appropriate here as well: Welcome to the Desert of the Real....

[Rex]

23. Botched? Is that like 'fucked up'? Did Brownie get a new job?

Helluva job! Today poor people look for a job that has good health care coverage for their family first, then salary second. This has worked well for our corporate landlords.

[AzDar]

25. What hath Shrub wrought? He has screwed up EVERYTHING in

life he's ever touched, and then called for help, from Babs, or Poppy , or President Clinton, or the Public.
He is utterly worthless, so is this 'bill' and so is the Congress who enabled him.

[anotherdrew]

27. so business takes orders from the president now? how fascistic!

maybe he should order them to pay their taxes too.

[belpejic]

28. Albatross

I'm not enough of an expert on anything to have an extremely informed opinion on the new Medicare plan -- I have enough of an education in economics, finance and accounting to have a strong opinion about where the US is headed, but that's it.

However, wouldn't it be supremely ironic if Republican-crafted health care legislation brings down the reformers with results in the 2006 mid-terms?

It would certainly be unironic and painful for those who currently rely on Medicare (and it seems as if that pain has already begun), but at some point sheer political will, as was the case with Social Security, has to overcome ideological blindness.

And if HRC tries to capitalize on this, shame on her. Two words for Senator Clinton's camp: Newt Gingrich. I don't need to hear it anymore from those folks.

On edit: And while I'm ranting, I just want to state that I'm not a radical letter writer. I have a few issues about which I care intensely, and when I'm moved to contact my congresscritters I always make a point of either crafting what I hope is a reasonable, thoughtful letter or making a supportive phone call. I live in NY, and I've always gotten a response from my Rep. However, always nothing from Sens. Clinton or Schumer. I know that their consituency is vast, but isn't that one of the reasons why they need to raise so much money? To fund the operations necessary for those kinds of situations? It pains me that Dems in Idaho can get a better response from Republican Senator Mike Crapo (love that name!) than I can get from my Sens. as a Dem in NY.