Public skeptical about Medicare drug benefits

They’ve been fooled so many times that they won’t be fooled again by politicians pretending to pass a Medicare drug benefits bill. Hope Congress reads this story today.

They’ve been fooled so many times that they won’t be fooled again by politicians pretending to pass a Medicare drug benefits bill. Hope Congress reads this story today. Interesting that the economic cost of Medicare drug benefits doesn’t concern any of the seniors quoted in this story. They just want theirs now, not in 2006, when the benefits would become effective. Who says the older generation is any better than the kids who will be paying the bills. The selfish old goats.

The New York Times reporter, SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, is telling the consumer side of the story, not to taxpayer’s side or the next generation’s side of the story. This appears to be shaping up as a major political blunder by Republicans, who will pay not in the 2004 elections, which is all President Bush cares about, but in 2006 and 2008 when seniors revolt.

 

Stolberg’s impact graphs:

In Washington, President Bush and Congressional leaders praise the Medicare legislation as historic. But here, as elsewhere in the country, retirees are experiencing what Robert J. Blendon, a health policy expert at the Harvard School of Public Health, calls “sticker shock” ? the realization that, after so many promises, the proposed drug benefit will look nothing like what they expected.

 

They are confused by the complex structure of the plans, and upset that the coverage will not begin until 2006; Mrs. Fox said she did not expect to live that long. They do not understand why the proposals have a “doughnut hole,” a gap in coverage.

 

Mrs. Fox, for example, spends roughly $2,400 a year ? nearly one fourth her Social Security check ? on medication, and under the bills widely expected to pass the House and Senate this week, she would still spend $1,400 to $1,750, including a $420 premium.

 

Those who already have benefits fear they will be forced into a less generous government plan. And there is a strong sense that Congress is all talk and no action, and that nothing will be passed in the end.

 

Here in Nashville, some are directing their ire at a man they know well: the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and doctor-turned-lawmaker who has made prescription drug legislation his signature issue.

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.

<< Back to main