The Next Hurrah: President Bush's "Signature Domestic Achievement" Is A Failure

January 14, 2006

President Bush's "Signature Domestic Achievement" Is A Failure

by DemFromCT

Anyone got seniors in their family? We've talked about the headache, and it's only getting worse.

Two weeks into the new Medicare prescription drug program, many of the nation's sickest and poorest elderly and disabled people are being turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting more than a dozen states to declare health emergencies and pay for their life-saving medicines.

Computer glitches, overloaded telephone lines and poorly trained pharmacists are being blamed for mix-ups that have resulted in the worst of unintended consequences: As many as 6.4 million low-income seniors, who until Dec. 31 received their medications free, suddenly find themselves navigating an insurance maze of large deductibles, co-payments and outright denial of coverage.

Yesterday, Ohio and Wisconsin announced that they will cover the drug costs of low-income seniors who would otherwise go without, joining every state in New England as well as California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Jersey.

"This new prescription drug plan was supposed to be a voluntary program to help people who didn't have coverage," said Jeanne Finberg, a lawyer for the National Senior Citizens Law Center. "All this is doing is harming the people who had coverage -- America's most vulnerable citizens."

Hailed as President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the program, which began Jan. 1, offers drug coverage for the first time to 43 million elderly and disabled Americans eligible for Medicare. At the same time, 6.4 million low-income beneficiaries who were receiving their medications through state Medicaid plans were switched into Medicare for their drug benefits and told they would not be charged the standard $250 deductible or co-payments.

But interviews with two dozen people -- state officials, pharmacists, advocates for seniors, and Medicare clients -- revealed a host of problems. Many poor seniors were never enrolled or were enrolled in plans that do not cover their medications. Others received multiple insurance cards, creating confusion at the pharmacies. Some were charged the deductible and unaffordable co-payments. And some, such as Laurine League, left empty-handed.

After two hour phone waits, missing or lost sign-ups, etc. my family just wanted to shoot everyone who came up with this (metaphorically speaking, of course). That, locally, will include Nancy Johnson in CT-5, who ran for reelection on this program.

REP. NANCY JOHNSON, (R) Connecticut: We have worked hard in a focused way on providing prescription drugs for seniors. We absolutely must get a bill through the House this year and to the President's desk.

I suspect some other Republicans are going to get a rude surprise about this in November as well.

January 14, 2006 at 16:56 in Bush Administration, Contributor--DemFromCT, Health Policy | Permalink

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The Next Hurrah

January 14, 2006

President Bush's "Signature Domestic Achievement" Is A Failure

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