Socialists: Profit-driven Medicare D drug plan stirs confusion and anger

[Karmadillo]

Crazy socialists just don't understand how capitalism works. All will be well in the end. I have relatives who've already abandoned enrollment because they are totally confused by what's going on. I'll research the issue for them over Christmas, but is this really any way to run a country?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/medi-d03.shtml

Registration for Medicare new prescription drug plan opened November 15, provoking widespread anger and confusion among its potential beneficiaries. The drug benefit, also known as Medicare Part D, is a government-subsidized, privatized insurance program that covers a portion of prescription drug costs.

Under the new program’s guidelines, eligible citizens must choose between dozens of private insurance plans, each offering access to a specific list of drugs and pharmacies, and each with its own distinctive premiums, deductibles, and co-pay rates. But first, beneficiaries must decide whether to participate in the plan at all.

In many cases, Medicare recipients could end up paying more for insurance coverage than they stand to benefit, but this option must be balanced against the fact that the price of coverage goes up permanently by one percent for each month that a recipient waits before joining the program after the official deadline of May 15, 2006. Thus, many elderly people are forced to decide whether they should purchase coverage that they don’t need now, or risk paying more in the future for the same plan if their health declines.

<edit>

Pharmaceutical and insurance provider interests dovetail neatly with the plans of the most right-wing sections of the ruling elite to scrap Medicare altogether as an entitlement program. In 1995, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich bluntly stated the Republican right’s agenda for traditional Medicare: “Now, we don’t get rid of it in round one because we don’t think that’s politically smart and we don’t think that’s the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it is going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it—voluntarily.”

For politicians who support Medicare privatization, the problem with Gingrich’s proposal is getting people to voluntarily leave Medicare. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 introduced the option of leaving Medicare for private managed care plans. Less than 10 percent of the Medicare population elected to exercise this option, known first as Medicare + Choice and now called Medicare Advantage. Even this percentage is rapidly shrinking. Medicare part D strengthens the thrust toward privatization by economically obligating seniors who don’t have separate insurance to join private plans if they wish to have any protection at all from escalating drug costs.

One provision of the 2003 bill prohibits an increase in corporate or income taxes to fund future Medicare costs beyond a certain threshold. This means that, with the inevitable escalation of drug prices, either payroll taxes or premiums will be increased, or there will be cuts in other Medicare services. The future costs associated with the new drug plan will be used to justify scaling back the Medicare entitlement program as a whole.

more...

[asjr]

1. Insurance and pharmas are holding senior citizens hostage,

aided and abetted by the Bush administration. The Medicare part D is one of the dumbest ideas yet.

[Frustratedlady]

3. I've been struggling through the web of options

and cannot understand why it has to be so difficult. You aren't comparing apples and apples, there isn't enough information on the companies (unless I haven't clicked on the right place), and it takes too long to work your way through all the nooks and crannies in order to find an answer to your question.

I'd love to know if any Repubs own or heavily invest in any of these insurance companies. I know it sounds awful for me to say this, but I just don't trust them. (tongue in cheek and eyes focused on the ceiling)

This is way too complicated for the elderly and how many of them have access to a computer or someone who can help them? A method to their madness, I guess.

[peacebird]

2. I went online to try to help my mom figure it out - what a nightmare

over 20 companies offering but no single page lists cost and coverage of the plans for comparison. You have to go to each company site, search for cost, see if they carry all your meds (no guarentee they will continue to, btw) and check the costs. Then check on the medigap - and they manage to word things either in vague terms (easy to twist around later to deny coverages) or in horrible legalistic jargon which is even harder to figure out.

Top it off - most drugs are still cheaper at Costco. Without paying for the benefit.

[Frustratedlady]

4. Right, and unless I missed something,

you lose your page if you take time to look up information and try to return to your personal data page. I've done that twice and walked away before I got my blood pressure up. If there is an option to save your insurance/drug information, I'd love to know where it is. You'd think FEMA set it up.

[Selatius]

5. Hey, greed has been apart of capitalism since the beginning

The abuses of the greedy is what gave rise to socialists in the first place.

[OneBlueSky]

6. Medicare Part D is indeed a giveaway to the pharmaceutical . . .

and insurance industries . . . there's very little (if any) real benefit for most "consumers", and figuring out the advantages of one plan over another is impossible, particularly since those plans can change at any time -- and you're locked in for at least a year . . . but if you don't sign up by May 15, there's a heavy monthly penalty that will accrue if you ever need to sign up in the future . . . this program was not created to help Medicare recipients -- it was created to increase the profitability of large corporations . . . that's why they're spending so much money trying to sign people up for their particular plans . . .