The title of this diary is a verbatim quote from a CSPAN caller this morning.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why there isn’t a public outcry against what is befalling our senior citizens. Our collective passivity, has resulted in enormous and untold hardship for America's elderly.
With Medicare Part D, it doesn’t take too long to fall in the notorious "doughnut hole." While your mother and mine are in this hole, many forgo life saving medications.
Medicare D is a travesty.
So what does a senior who has hit the doughnut hole do? Many do without.
The gap in Medicare's prescription drug coverage is looking deeper.
For the second time in two years, a major insurer that covered brand-name drugs in the "doughnut hole" has said it's losing money on the drug plan and pulling it off the market at the end of the year.
As a result, seniors who depend on costly medications to treat chronic or serious illnesses are left to wonder, again, where to turn for comprehensive drug coverage next year.
. . .Of 60 drug plans available in Texas this year, 17 cover generic drugs in the doughnut hole, where seniors typically bear the full cost of prescriptions. But only the Sierra Rx Plus Plan pays for both generic and brand-name drugs in the gap.
Not in 2008, though. Sierra Health Services Inc. recently said it's losing about $100 per month for each Plus Plan enrollee and won't offer that kind of gap coverage again.
. . .Seniors hit the doughnut hole when they and their drug plans have spent a total of $2,400. They then pay for all of their prescriptions until their total drug costs reach $5,451. After that, they pay 5 percent.
. . .Consumer advocates say Sierra's and Humana's troubles present a challenge for Medicare and the Bush administration's position that the private market can meet seniors' prescription needs.
"There's no stability here," said Deane Beebe, director of public affairs for the Medicare Rights Center. "A lot of people were counting on Humana, and then on Sierra, to protect them through the gap. Now what are they to do?"
A few minutes ago, Sherrod Brown was on Washington Journal talking about the Medicare D debacle.
The pharmaceutical industry is waging a fierce battle to prohibit Medicare from being allowed to negotiate drug prices.
White House Threatens Veto of Drug Price Bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House threatened on Tuesday to veto a Senate bill proposing to allow the U.S. government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs under the Medicare program.
The Senate was expected to cast a test vote on Wednesday, when Democrats try to end debate and go forward with consideration of the bill. Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, who opposes the bill, has vowed to filibuster or talk the bill to death.
In a statement, the White House said the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate bill ``would have a negligible effect on federal spending and provide no substantial savings to the government or Medicare beneficiaries.''
This is from The Politico (not by any means my preferred MSM publication) but it gives you a little peek into how corruption, powerful and well-funded special interests make the decisions in Washington. You, I and the American people are an afterthought and a nuisance.
It is an understatement to say that reading this garbage is stomach-turning. It's revolting. It's not a stretch to say it's criminal. It's criminal because America's elderly (and others), are dying at the feet of our broken political system which is responsible for our collapsed healthcare system.
This is Murder by Spreadsheet.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) slipped out the door of an overcrowded and overheated markup on a Democratic-backed prescription drug bill late Thursday night.
While he conferred with an aide, a pharmaceutical lobbyist sidled up to the ranking Republican. The lobbyist pressed Grassley about the filibuster intentions of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and whether fence-sitters in his party, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, might defect to the Democrats. Grassley said he didn't know.
The exchange illustrated the pharmaceutical lobby's wavering confidence in the bill's future. Pharmaceutical lobbyists trained their focus on the Senate floor this week as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced the bill Tuesday. The bill, which Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) filed Friday, seeks to tweak Medicare's prescription drug plan.
. . .Lobbyists raised a few eyebrows when the Senate Finance Committee scheduled the markup for the bill late Thursday, at 6:40 p.m. Nonetheless, they packed the cramped committee room. Several lobbyists paid placeholders, some of whom started waiting before 11 a.m., to secure prime spots for the standing-room-only markup.
Being old in America is scary, as a nation, we don't make it easy. I suppose we really want our elderly to go off and die. I am unable to fathom the broken moral compass of those in Washington who have big red targets painted on the backs of our most vulnerable.
One dollar a day. Imagine this, in the richest country on the planet, as you and I dutifully file our tax returns to fund all this corruption. Many senior citizens can barely scrape together food money. Or certainly we know they chose between food and medicine, or rent and medicine and healthcare.
Yes, folks, our elderly are Republican targets. People like these are human cannon fodder. They are also American citizens and they vote.
Visions of shuffleboard and travel are quickly fading as senior citizens learn the old gray mare of retirement ain't what she used to be.
In fact, many seniors in San Bernardino County are learning that their retirement years are turning out to be the most unstable of their lives.
"These are supposed to be our golden years," said 74-year-old Frank Montes of Colton. "But they're tarnished."
. . .Both Montes and his wife, Sarah, volunteer at the Perris Hill Senior Center in San Bernardino. But the drive from Colton to the center is 20 miles round trip and the $50 a week the couple spend on gas has forced them to cut down their volunteering from four days a week to three.
But the Monteses are more fortunate than others. Frank Montes said many seniors come to the center for its $1 lunch on weekdays.
For some, it's their only full meal of the day, he said.
San Bernardino resident Benjamin Deaton said he lives on an income of $850 a month. His rent alone is $700.
Utilities are sometimes a problem, as is food. Deaton, 67, relies on food pantries.
"My (natural) gas bill was killing me this winter," he said.
Montes said his main concerns were the rising costs of prescription medications and health care. Doctor's visits and medications that cost $10 a few years ago have tripled, he said.
"Nothing is free anymore," Montes said. "If you have a medication that doesn't work for you, there's no refund on it. You have to go back to the doctor, pay another co-pay then pay for a new medication."
. . .Michael Dominguez, of Highland also lives on a fixed income. Dominguez, 69, said he can't scrimp on health care so he tightens his belt when it comes to groceries and even clothes, only buying clothing from thrift shops. Gas, too, is a burden but public transportation is even more so.
It just makes you want to weep. And it must end.
UPDATE
From the New York Times:
Bill to Let Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices Is Blocked
A pillar of the Democratic political program tumbled today when Republicans in the Senate blocked a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans, a practice now forbidden by law.
Democrats could not muster the 60 votes needed to take up the legislation in the face of staunch opposition from Republicans, who said that private insurers and their agents, known as pharmacy benefit managers, were already negotiating large discounts for Medicare beneficiaries.
. . .Republicans framed the issue as a choice between government-run health care and a benefit managed by the private sector. The drug benefit is delivered and administered by private insurers, under contract to Medicare.
Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, denounced the bill as "a step down the road to a single-payer, government-run health care system."
How tragic.
__________________________
Things gotta turn around...
When I was insured (through a local government job) my personal doctor dumped me because of a conflict with my carrier (BCBS). I watch first-hand as Medicare and the healthcare system that exists today in America wildly abuse and neglect my mother's elderly status and poor health condition now in her waining days. As a current uninsured citizen myself, I find I that health services are becoming more competitive everyday for the uninsured cash paying customer who plays the game with some smarts. If I need an MRI, or Bone Density Scan, I shop around the fact I'm paying cash and the prices for procedures drop out of the sky. Both my mother and I required Brain MRI's this year... I paid $500.00 cash for mine, and my mom's insurance & Medicare D Plan got billed for around $3,500.00+ for the same procedure. When will America find its pride and social responsibility? I may not live to see the day - certainly my mother won't...
__________________________Music in poetry, song in verse, visions are greatest from hunger, and thirst...
Sorry to hear 'bout that
Sorry to hear 'bout that Keechi! Have you outburst your miseries to the government of America? I'm sure they will take action on these.
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