Analysis: Troubled Medicare Troubles GOP

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - The Medicare drug program that was supposed to win political points for Republicans has exploded in their faces as this election year has begun. It's a particularly vexing problem for the GOP, since older Americans are such active voters and no one seeking office wants to see them angry.

Since the Bush administration's prescription medicine program began on Jan. 1, tens of thousands of elderly people have been unable to get medicines promised by the government. Some 20 states have had to jump in to help them.

And while officials promised anew on Tuesday that a fix was on the way, Democrats pointed to the confusion surrounding the rollout and pounded the administration and its GOP allies in Congress.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts cited a "systemwide failure" that he said "puts the health of our frailest citizens at great risk." Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York likened the government's response to a "man-made disaster" to its missteps on Hurricane Katrina.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/medicare_woes

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

1. Troubled Medicare REALLY Troubles Eldery!!

They don't give a shit about the elderly's problems. They only care about their ratings and re-election prospects.

Frickin' Bastards!

[FloridaPat]

2. Krugman was on MSNBC today saying it's a mess because

* wanted to include all those middle men instead of dealing directly with the government. He also said the economy is crap.

[Skittles]

3. it was a payoff to to drug companies

neither they nor the GOP reps give a damn about elderly folk

[grytpype]

4. This could give Dems a majority in Congress if they play it right.

This and the aborted attack on Social Security.

"Only the Democrats can fix Medicare Part D and save Social Security. The Republicans will screw up whatever they can't destroy. Vote Dem if you want Medicare and Social Security to be saved!"

It would work!

[Gman]

5. It sure didn't trouble them to keep the vote open for 4 hours

and offer bribes to support another congressman's son, then lie about the entire incident, and all the other crap that happened when they passed this colossal cluster fuck.

[niallmac]

6. And remember folks!!

The god damned AARP supported this POS! I'LL never forget.

[Hardrada]

9. That's why we quit them and compared their leadership

to Neville Chamberlain at Munich and Vidkun Quisling in oslo.

[niallmac]

10. Wow! And I thought I was passionate about my AARP vendetta!

They had no right to sell out their constituents like this.

[CoffeeCat]

7. This is good for the Dems...

...because Senior Citizens vote.

When they're angry, even more of them come out to vote.

I haven't heard ONE POSITIVE THING from any Senior Citizen, about Bush's Medicare "plan." Even the stories from senior relatives are negative. This really is an abomination for the administration because so many people are connected to this sham. Caregivers for these Senior Citizens are totally unhappy because they are trying to help their parent wade through the paper work and make sense of the "plan"--which is nearly impossible.

Way to go Junior---in your desperate attempt to hurt people--you're going to end up pissing off a ton of people who will vote against your party.

Junior's failures are our gains. It's too bad that our Senior Citizens must pay for BushCo's failures.

[NanceGreggs]

8. Let's not forget ...

... that elderly Republicans are getting shafted right along with elderly Democrats. So not only are THEY pissed-off, so are their children.

The GOP electorate may not care about these people as individuals -- but that's a lot of VOTERS who they'll be sorry to have lost come the mid-terms.

[MetaTrope]

11. WTF, the elderly got their $250 tax rebate, what more do they want?

:sarcasm:

[LibDemAlways]

12. How any elderly person on a fixed income could

vote repuke is beyond me. Don't they remember which party fought for Medicare and Social Security in the first place? Many would be in very desperate circumstances if not for those programs - proposed and enacted by Democrats.

[LibDemAlways]

13. Dupe.

[laylah]

14. Well, who'd a thunk it?

Had the power grabbing freaks not held the gavel time an unprecedented length of time, giving Delay and others time to strong arm those that voted against this damned thing in the first place, this "reform" wouldn't have happened at all!

Jenn

[baby_bear]

15. Rockefeller LTTE/NYTimes must read

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/opinion/l17medicare.html

<snip>
To the Editor:

"States Intervene After Drug Plan Hits Early Snags" (front page, Jan. 8) spells out the crisis facing many low-income elderly and disabled Americans who are falling through the cracks as they try to make the transition to Medicare prescription drug coverage.

This crisis was anticipated for some time, yet the Republican-controlled Congress repeatedly blocked remedies. In 2003, when the Medicare drug bill was debated, many of us in Congress fought to place safeguards for the low-income elderly, but those efforts were rejected.

Last year, Democrats introduced legislation to postpone the start of the transition for this vulnerable population by six months. We wanted to ensure continuous prescription drug coverage for all Medicaid recipients moving to a Medicare prescription drug plan, but every Republican in the Senate voted against this bill.

As a result of this refusal to act, thousands of low-income Americans aren't receiving the prescription drugs they need, and many states trying to fix the gap are incurring costs of up to a million dollars a day.

If Congress does not take extraordinary legislative action, we could see tens of thousands of Americans subject to unnecessary illness and hardship. The federal government must take emergency action and should also fully reimburse states and pharmacies for the unexpected costs they are incurring.

John D. Rockefeller IV
U.S. Senator from West Virginia

</snip

I remember staying up all night on the west coast, unbelievably watching that twist-the-arm, three or more hour middle-of-the-night stealth act on the part of House Republicans to pass this bill, this bill whose costs the Bush administration hid to the extent that an HHS economist was threatened with termination if he told the truth to Congress about the real money involved...

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The votes flipping as the unseen arms were twisted.

And now we should be surprised?

b_b

[Hekate]

16. "Exploded in their faces"? Nice. Too bad so many elders are suffering

...due to the folly and greed of the Republicans in Congress.

My mom, her brother, and his wife got together to try to figure out this abomination and which of the so-called plans they should sign up for. That's two PhDs and an author struggling with the complexity of it all -- though of the three only my aunt has anything resembling health.

My mother is beside herself. Last year she had heart surgery, which was deemed a success, but almost immediately came down with rheumatoid arthritis, which has nearly killed her.

My sis and I flew out again last week to see if we could help -- among other things, I couldn't fathom why mom is not seeing a rheumatologist.

Here's why: according to mom's internist, who is a great guy, there are four (4) rheumatologists in the city and none (0) of them will take Medicare patients. Elderly patients have to front all the costs of treatment and argue with Medicare themselves if they want to see a rheumatologist. Her internist used to be friends with one who moved away, now he has no one he can call on for a free consult. His friendly drug rep doesn't leave him free samples of new RA drugs either. So he does the best he can with what he's got...

The people who are intent on wrecking our social safety net should rot in Hell.

Hekate
:argh:

[rucky]

17. You created this problem, assholes!

how did you think they were going to react?

lucky for you, most of the really pissed off ones will be too sick to vote by November.

[pinniped]

18. Ya, even those stupid wannabe I Love Lucy commercials with Fred...

and Ethyl Mertz talking about that crap can't help everyone.

[salin]

19. poor GOPers... this crisis of their making

blows up - with the questions of "how did this happen, who - in their right mind - would write the law this way?" --- just at the same time that the public has been getting a long and sordid lesson about the GOP pay-to-play/bribery/slushfund schemes of letting lobbyists dictate policy for the right price.

Too bad for them - that this awful crisis illuminates for the public the danger that the corruption in the REpublican led congress (and WH) poses to Americans in their daily lives.