the first taste is free
Yeah, I'm getting on the "this new Medicare plan sucks" bandwagon, with a new angle :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012602061.html?sub=AR
Manufacturers (all except for Merck) are discontinuing their free-drugs-to-seniors programs, saying that those people should now be covered under the new Medicare plans. This will cause a great many of the poorest elderly to be abruptly without their medications - or to be forced to choose between drugs and food, in exactly the way this plan was supposed to *prevent.*
"Drugmakers blamed the Bush administration for issuing a legal opinion that suggests companies could run afoul of anti-kickback laws if they provide free drugs to Medicare beneficiaries. That guidance, from the Health and Human Services Inspector General's office, warned that providing free medicine to someone enrolled in a Medicare plan could be viewed as an effort to keep the patient on that particular product, rather than a generic or cheaper version sold by a competitor."
If I were particularly cynical, I'd muse that apparently it's pure coincidence that the results will (theoretically, assuming the desperate elderly find the money somehow) be a lot more profits going to the drug companies for medicines that used to be free. The less-cynical reading is that this is just another example of unintended consequences from a staggeringly ill-thought-out plan.
Once again, the Bush administration's idea of help is to be victimize people in direct proportion to how poor they are - nothing says charity like picking on needy old people.
In unrelated but more positive US political news, Senator Lieberman (I'm following because he's from my home state of CT) announced he will vote against Alito.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012602061.html?sub=AR
Manufacturers (all except for Merck) are discontinuing their free-drugs-to-seniors programs, saying that those people should now be covered under the new Medicare plans. This will cause a great many of the poorest elderly to be abruptly without their medications - or to be forced to choose between drugs and food, in exactly the way this plan was supposed to *prevent.*
"Drugmakers blamed the Bush administration for issuing a legal opinion that suggests companies could run afoul of anti-kickback laws if they provide free drugs to Medicare beneficiaries. That guidance, from the Health and Human Services Inspector General's office, warned that providing free medicine to someone enrolled in a Medicare plan could be viewed as an effort to keep the patient on that particular product, rather than a generic or cheaper version sold by a competitor."
If I were particularly cynical, I'd muse that apparently it's pure coincidence that the results will (theoretically, assuming the desperate elderly find the money somehow) be a lot more profits going to the drug companies for medicines that used to be free. The less-cynical reading is that this is just another example of unintended consequences from a staggeringly ill-thought-out plan.
Once again, the Bush administration's idea of help is to be victimize people in direct proportion to how poor they are - nothing says charity like picking on needy old people.
In unrelated but more positive US political news, Senator Lieberman (I'm following because he's from my home state of CT) announced he will vote against Alito.