The Doughnut Hole looms
The current crisis with the Medicare Prescription Drug program is a bad omen for what will happen about mid-year.
As I understand it, the very poor, whose prescription drugs were formerly covered by Medicaid, were involuntarily switched from Medicaid coverage to Medicare Part D coverage as of January 1st. It's mostly these people, who simply can't afford to pay for any drugs, who have precipitated the current crisis when they appear at their pharmacy but their names do not appear on the Medicaid computers. The pharmacies either have to turn them away drugless or eat the cost of the drugs they dispense.
What will happen when these very same people reach the doughnut hole? That's the gap in coverage under Medicare Part D that begins once your drug costs exceed $2,250 and does not end until your drug costs exceed $5,100. That leaves $2,950 of drugs not covered at all. Under Medicaid, these people were formerly covered for drug costs in that range. Now they are not. If the people who came into their pharmacy on January 1 couldn't afford to buy the first installment of their drugs, what's going to happen when they reach the doughnut hole?
This is a greater disaster in the making than anyone ever dreamed. But, so far, the Democrats haven't tried to make much of an issue of it. Just like they failed to make much of an issue about body armor. Just like they failed to make much of an issue about Alito. Just like they have failed to make much of an issue about the boy King assuming dictatorial powers. Just like they failed to make much of an issue about torture. Just like the have failed to make much of an issue about extraordinary rendition. Just like they have failed to make much of an issue about any of the outrages perpetrated by this criminal administration.
Why, oh why are we cursed with such incompetent leaders?
As I understand it, the very poor, whose prescription drugs were formerly covered by Medicaid, were involuntarily switched from Medicaid coverage to Medicare Part D coverage as of January 1st. It's mostly these people, who simply can't afford to pay for any drugs, who have precipitated the current crisis when they appear at their pharmacy but their names do not appear on the Medicaid computers. The pharmacies either have to turn them away drugless or eat the cost of the drugs they dispense.
What will happen when these very same people reach the doughnut hole? That's the gap in coverage under Medicare Part D that begins once your drug costs exceed $2,250 and does not end until your drug costs exceed $5,100. That leaves $2,950 of drugs not covered at all. Under Medicaid, these people were formerly covered for drug costs in that range. Now they are not. If the people who came into their pharmacy on January 1 couldn't afford to buy the first installment of their drugs, what's going to happen when they reach the doughnut hole?
This is a greater disaster in the making than anyone ever dreamed. But, so far, the Democrats haven't tried to make much of an issue of it. Just like they failed to make much of an issue about body armor. Just like they failed to make much of an issue about Alito. Just like they have failed to make much of an issue about the boy King assuming dictatorial powers. Just like they failed to make much of an issue about torture. Just like the have failed to make much of an issue about extraordinary rendition. Just like they have failed to make much of an issue about any of the outrages perpetrated by this criminal administration.
Why, oh why are we cursed with such incompetent leaders?
posted by walldon | 9:28 AM
1 Comments:
Our leaders are not incompetent. They are very competently cruel!
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