Mmmm...Doughnut
As part of its awesome attempt to make large-scale public policy based on a mixture of cynicism and ignorance, the Republican Party in its wisdom created a presciption drug benefit for Medicare recipients featuring a "doughnut hole" in the coverage. They wanted the program to be universal, and therefore popular, so every senior with any drug expenses -- even if they're really cheap -- gets some coverage. They also wanted the program to save money. But they didn't want to save money through any methods that might imperil the financial interests of pharmaceutical companies or insurance firms. So they made the benefit actually phase out as your costs grow, which is the reverse of how an insurance program is supposed to work. Then if your costs get super-high, the benefits come back.
Lurking in the middle, though, is the doughnut hole and people aren't happy about it. This is going to be important politically. The GOP essentially sold its soul to pass this bill and win votes from seniors, but they're also the bought-and-paid-for stooges of the private health care industry. If they can manage to please both constituencies at once, they're in pretty good shape. If not, then not.
Comments
Funny you should mention this today. I just learned last night that an older (than me) friend of mine has just run into the donut hole. In the spirit of Bob's previous arguments for tapping into the shared wisdom available on the web for information in dealing with health issues--anybody have any good suggestions to help her with these costs? (And don't tell me to tell her to vote Democrat--She does, but she lives in DC, so it doesn't matter.)
It's important to Republican health care ideals that the older you get you should be impoverished by medical problems, but not actually bankrupt.
Good photo. I think I might just hop out to the local bakery.
I would say that the odds of the average American voter connecting their own or Grandma's Medicare drug problems with the Radical Republicans in general, or their own Representative in general, are just about zero. Americans just don't seem to think that anything they do in the voting booth has or can have any real consequences for them; it is just another game to be watched on the news networks rather than Fox Sports.
Cranky
anybody have any good suggestions to help her with these costs?
Go to Canada.
And if Chris Murphy doesn't start using a variation on that image in ads against Nancy Johnson (R-BigPharma) then he needs his head examining.
Mmmmm, doughnut. [/Homer]
About 3 million of the 23 million Americans who receive the Medicare drug benefit are expected to reach the gap this year, officials said. That is fewer than half the 7 million cited in a 2004 report by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which Medicare chief Mark B. McClellan called outdated.
I thought it would be more. The political salience of the hole depends on the number of people who hit it and, of those who do, how angry they are about it. If only 13% of the enrollees hit the hole, I can't see it making a HUGE dent in the popularity of the program overall.
The political salience of the hole depends on the number of people who hit it and, of those who do, how angry they are about it.
Now, we all know that you're a bit thick, Al, but who do you suspect requires the sort of medication that, undiscounted, costs $250/month over nine months, or more over less time?
Here's a hint: they're likely to be sick people. Sick old people. Sick old people with families. Sick old people who will make it into the local paper and onto the local news because they've just been whacked with a huge bill.
Now, I know that your response would be 'fuck you, Grandma, just get a job or die already.' But somehow I suspect that others may think differently. So stick that in your doughnut and eat it, you pathetic heap of shit.
Oh, and I wouldn't trust Mark McClellan to tell me the time of day, given his record on Part D.
Until recently I had a private insurance plan with just such a feature. I chose this plan freely. Why are you so sure it's a bad idea?
I think the idea is to give people incentives to economize on drugs. Are you sure that that is not worth doing, or that there is a better way to do that?
Well, the great thing about America is that eventually 'Ed' can have all the fun of trying to choose which drugs to economize on.
Ed, you go ahead and do that, and I can tell you in all seriousness, that your life will be way better if you turn down 90% of the drugs your doctor wants you to try. Been there, done that.
The only problem lies in figuring out which drugs are the 10% you should be taking. Good luck with that.
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