Plan D? or Plan Dud
Well how 'bout that?
FLASH NEWS REPORT
"WASHINGTON - After promoting the wide choices available to the elderly and disabled for Medicare drug coverage, the Bush administration is now considering limiting those options."
Ya think? Have you looked at the Medicare drug benefit program? Some regions have as many as 40, that's Forty, plans for your mom, dad, disabled wife, to sift through! Have you sifted through 40 insurance plans complete with "legalese" and disclaimers that would actually have those folks in Palm Beach with something to truly get confused about? Well I have! And it wasn't pretty, let me tell you. Why I had to borrow Valerie's electric wheel chair just to help me cart the reams of paper mailed to me by said plans (all of them so obese in wordplay and grossly overstuffed with enough mumbo jumbo for me to consider taking some of her $635 a month med supply just to cope!) So this Dem from California,Rep. Pete Stark, who apparently likes to throw cow chips at this 'wonderful' program from time to time, actually gives the Medicare boys an "E" for effort on trying to slim down this ridiculous behemoth. Although he did qualify it with a statement, ""It is too bad this recognition comes 2 1/2 years after passage of the law, and two months into implementation," Stark said. What an understatement!
Now let me put the news article aside and see, if just for a moment, I can bring this into perspective from one poor SOB, to whom all this manure (remember? a high fallutin' word for bullshit) actually means something. Val has had Medicare for years since she was deemed disabled, which is good in some senses as the medical procedures and endless line of physician consults and tests are covered. Heck, she can swim in a hot pool, have massages, a nurse to visit home ( well, actually it was a motel room we called home after Charlie for 106 days,but...where was I,oh, manure, that's it), and a specialist to teach her how to pick up pennies, all in the name of therapy. Important word there, therapy, but it won't cover drug therapy. And just what do you think all these physicians etc. prescribed? You got it, drug therapy. Doc says "there, that's your problem, and this is the treatment", and the buck stops there....literally! What good is it for Medicare to pay for the dang computer diagnosis of the engine if it never intended to spring for the tune up in the first place? Again, that's another story, so where we are is left with the Bushwhack song and dance of a Plan D solution to please those pesky varmints in Palm Beach so he could get votes yet the "D" is a "Dud".
The plans offered are stacked very high with a lot of fluff versions that really don't financially make a heck of a lot of sense when you balance out the premium, vs the deductible, vs the co pay, vs the accepted drug list, vs the 3 ibuprofen I had to take after carting all that manure down to the dumpster (we're too poor to actually own our own trash can). I guess I could have recycled, but I can't really afford the lawsuit I might expose myself to from propagating such nonsense on to some other poor unsuspecting soul. (you never know if they really erase everything in that recycling plant). It appears that some advocacy groups have the wisdom to actually see that Bush's new plan to limit companies to two plans per region, as opposed to the current limit of three, might possibly not trim the piggie enough. (boy these guys are sharp). But I will give props for my pick as the quote of the day, "Two lousy choices is no better than seven lousy choices," said Diane Archer of the Medicare Rights Center.( now there's a gal who don't miss much!) I've rambled enough I guess, but I will leave you with this teaser. The big Republican based drug companies who tell you they have to charge $195 per month for quality of life are making enough money so as to afford to give drugs away for free! Just ask them, tell 'em your like me, in the Trench, and poof...Patient Advocacy Program. I'll finish that rant another time, meanwhile if the need suits click the PPA link in my list.
Technorati Tags:
Plan D, Economics, Social Security, Disabilities, Medicines
FLASH NEWS REPORT
"WASHINGTON - After promoting the wide choices available to the elderly and disabled for Medicare drug coverage, the Bush administration is now considering limiting those options."
Ya think? Have you looked at the Medicare drug benefit program? Some regions have as many as 40, that's Forty, plans for your mom, dad, disabled wife, to sift through! Have you sifted through 40 insurance plans complete with "legalese" and disclaimers that would actually have those folks in Palm Beach with something to truly get confused about? Well I have! And it wasn't pretty, let me tell you. Why I had to borrow Valerie's electric wheel chair just to help me cart the reams of paper mailed to me by said plans (all of them so obese in wordplay and grossly overstuffed with enough mumbo jumbo for me to consider taking some of her $635 a month med supply just to cope!) So this Dem from California,Rep. Pete Stark, who apparently likes to throw cow chips at this 'wonderful' program from time to time, actually gives the Medicare boys an "E" for effort on trying to slim down this ridiculous behemoth. Although he did qualify it with a statement, ""It is too bad this recognition comes 2 1/2 years after passage of the law, and two months into implementation," Stark said. What an understatement!
Now let me put the news article aside and see, if just for a moment, I can bring this into perspective from one poor SOB, to whom all this manure (remember? a high fallutin' word for bullshit) actually means something. Val has had Medicare for years since she was deemed disabled, which is good in some senses as the medical procedures and endless line of physician consults and tests are covered. Heck, she can swim in a hot pool, have massages, a nurse to visit home ( well, actually it was a motel room we called home after Charlie for 106 days,but...where was I,oh, manure, that's it), and a specialist to teach her how to pick up pennies, all in the name of therapy. Important word there, therapy, but it won't cover drug therapy. And just what do you think all these physicians etc. prescribed? You got it, drug therapy. Doc says "there, that's your problem, and this is the treatment", and the buck stops there....literally! What good is it for Medicare to pay for the dang computer diagnosis of the engine if it never intended to spring for the tune up in the first place? Again, that's another story, so where we are is left with the Bushwhack song and dance of a Plan D solution to please those pesky varmints in Palm Beach so he could get votes yet the "D" is a "Dud".
The plans offered are stacked very high with a lot of fluff versions that really don't financially make a heck of a lot of sense when you balance out the premium, vs the deductible, vs the co pay, vs the accepted drug list, vs the 3 ibuprofen I had to take after carting all that manure down to the dumpster (we're too poor to actually own our own trash can). I guess I could have recycled, but I can't really afford the lawsuit I might expose myself to from propagating such nonsense on to some other poor unsuspecting soul. (you never know if they really erase everything in that recycling plant). It appears that some advocacy groups have the wisdom to actually see that Bush's new plan to limit companies to two plans per region, as opposed to the current limit of three, might possibly not trim the piggie enough. (boy these guys are sharp). But I will give props for my pick as the quote of the day, "Two lousy choices is no better than seven lousy choices," said Diane Archer of the Medicare Rights Center.( now there's a gal who don't miss much!) I've rambled enough I guess, but I will leave you with this teaser. The big Republican based drug companies who tell you they have to charge $195 per month for quality of life are making enough money so as to afford to give drugs away for free! Just ask them, tell 'em your like me, in the Trench, and poof...Patient Advocacy Program. I'll finish that rant another time, meanwhile if the need suits click the PPA link in my list.
Technorati Tags:
Plan D, Economics, Social Security, Disabilities, Medicines
posted by p_jordan_sr at 2/25/2006 01:58:00 AM
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