The official blog of the Libertarian Party
January 17, 2006
Bush Administration Forces Insurers to Cover Flaws in Medicare Drug Plan
The Bush administration is looking to have insurers cover some of the many mistakes inherent in the Medicare drug plan. This past weekend, the White House issued a directive that instructed insurers to provide a 30-day supply of any drug that a beneficiary was previously taking and the poor cannot be charged more than five dollars for a covered drug, the New York Times reported.
The presidential directive was an attempt to solve the latest problem in the new Medicare drug plan that many say was poorly planned from the beginning. Many poor people who were eligible for the prescription drug benefit found that they were not in the federal government's database. As a result, insurers claimed they have no way to identify poor people who are entitled to Medicare help aid with their drug costs. The New York Times reported that pharmacists spent hours on the phone trying to reach insurance companies that are under contract with the government to administer the Medicare drug benefit.
With many eligible poor people leaving the pharmacy without important medicines, state governments have had to step in to cover drug costs. States like California, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have provided help to low-income people in covering their co-payments in the absence of the Medicare drug benefit.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty criticized the Medicare prescription drug plan, when he said, "The new federal program is too complicated for many people to understand, and the implementation of the new program by the federal government has been awful." Wisconsin Governor James E. Doyle faulted the federal government by stating, "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."
Posted by at January 17, 2006 03:24 PM
Reader Comments:
Well this is the rare exception to the Bush Administration glorious track record. Like a modern Icarus, the President's plan to reform government mismanagement, set its sight high and, regrettably has fallen short.
Fortunately, this minor failure will not long be remembered. It shall be overshadowed by the triumphant achievement of a liberated Iraq; the creation of the TSA, and Homeland Security; his swift and appropriate actions in the face of tragedy (i.e. the terrorist attacks and natural disasters); his unending crusade to protect civil liberties for government encroachment; and his famous tolerance of all peoples and all religions.
A poorly planned, inefficient government program????? So what else is new?
From the start, I was very much against the Medicare Prescription Drug Program due to the fact that it would cost taxpayers trillions over a period of 5 to 10 years, thus causing our children and future generations to get saddled with even more debt. I was also against it because I believed, and still do, that government sould get out of the medical insurance business all together.
Aside from that, I can't understand how members of Congress, both in the Senate and the House, and this President, can add to a government program that, according to the experts from the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute and others, is destined to go bankrupt in possibly ten to fifteen years from now. What were they thinking? If the Congress and President Bush were serious about fixing the Medicare program, and adding a prescription plan to it all, they could have solved the problem by privatizing it. Getting the Medicare program out of the governemnt's hands. However, they did not do that. They wanted the federal government to control it all. Now all, both young and old, will suffer because of this.
I have to wonder how long we, the people, will allow ourselves to be the shuttlecock in the never-ending volley between Robber Baron A (the gov't) and Robber Baron B (the bribe-empowered "healthcare" companies). The escalating disaster of greedy incompetence vs incompetent greed is going to eventually land us in a single payer system if real, solution-oriented discussion doesn't occur in the citizenry. And you thought things were bad NOW...
I'm not sure what everybody is all worked up about. The prescription drug plan is working perfectly: the drug companies are getting there subsidies, the politicians are getting their campaign contributions/bribes, and the people the program is supposed to help are left out in the cold. Chalk up another brilliant idea to republican and democrat politicians. Ron Paul, HELP!
I am still banging my head on the steel girders after the Republicans passed this stupid expansion of Medicare. I don't think there is much I can really say on this since Medicare is on a hopeless road to disaster and we are all along for the ride.
More interesting is what is coming out of the Supreme Court as of late. www.supremecourtus.gov
Follow the link on the front page to recent decisions. A few have ended up in libertarian favor, a few not so good. I am not going to discuss them on this thread since they are off topic, but I think it is important for libertarians to be informed on them.
LOL.
I think Matthew must have read my mind. Literally as I posted that message, he posted up a Supreme Court thread. :)
CHRIS CAN YOU PLEASE do something if people want to discuss a topic that is related to MARK B post.
Posted by: Mark B. at January 18, 2006 04:53 PM
Thank you.
I think Medicare was poorly planned. What is needed is that the states should do their own healthcare reform [Independent of Washington]. The decisions should be made by the Physician and the Patient [not by the Government and Insurance Companies]. Medicare [and Medicaid] should be privatized gradually.
Please send all blog topic suggestions to info@lp.org. Thank you.
Tax and spend: It's not just for the democrats any more.
It's worse than tax and spend: it's borrow and spend in an unending cycle. At least 'til the markers are called and we have nothing to offer the people (companies, foreign governments, etc) to whom we owe all that money.
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Well this is the rare exception to the Bush Administration glorious track record. Like a modern Icarus, the President's plan to reform government mismanagement, set its sight high and, regrettably has fallen short.
Fortunately, this minor failure will not long be remembered. It shall be overshadowed by the triumphant achievement of a liberated Iraq; the creation of the TSA, and Homeland Security; his swift and appropriate actions in the face of tragedy (i.e. the terrorist attacks and natural disasters); his unending crusade to protect civil liberties for government encroachment; and his famous tolerance of all peoples and all religions.
Posted by: bagpipe_johnny at January 17, 2006 04:08 PM