Medicare

Bush's veto of the Medicare bill early has been overridden by Congress. Here are the numbers:

House: 383-41
Senate:70-26

Not sure if McCain showed up for the vote, but I highly doubt it.

The bill does have a veto proof majority in both houses, so it might get overturned. The big question - will John McCain show up to help insure the veto gets overturned, or will he miss it and try to claim victory if it succeeds? This is what he did on the original vote - wouldn't say anything about it, but didn't show up to vote for or against it (and was the only Senator who missed the vote). Of course once it passed, McCain acted like he was all for it.

Republicans have filibustered another bill (though the media refuses to use the F word). This time it was a bill to block the decrease in Medicare payments. Just more evidence that the Republicans hate our senior citizens and want to see them all suffer. What monsters.

The Republicans keep talking about how we should let the insurance companies fix the healthcare problem. Well we have had a good test run of that when the Republican designed Medicare system went into effect last year. The results are disgusting:

Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system’s huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found.

The problems, described in 91 audit reports reviewed by The New York Times, include the improper termination of coverage for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, huge backlogs of claims and complaints, and a failure to answer telephone calls from consumers, doctors and drugstores.

Medicare officials have required insurance companies of all sizes to fix the violations by adopting “corrective action plans.” Since March, Medicare has imposed fines of more than $770,000 on 11 companies for marketing violations and failure to provide timely notice to beneficiaries about changes in costs and benefits.

Now is sounds like the government is trying to fix this - after all they are fining 11 companies $770,000. The problem is that these companies consider those fines as the cost of doing business. They don't care about them when they are making billions.

This is also a problem that was raised when the program first started 21 months ago. I blogged about it on numerous occasions. People were signing up for these programs because their prescriptions were listed on that company's formulary. That was in January of 2006. In February of 2006 those companies changed their formularies so that the drugs people needed weren't covered and then these people were stuck with that company for a year. It is criminal how these people are acting.

So if you want to see company profits grow at the cost of human life, vote for Republicans. They hate life. They feel life is only good for money. They try to call universal healthcare "socialism". Well if socialism is defined as a country carrying about the health of their citizens, then I think a majority of this country is socialists, and if that is the case then those who support things the way they are need to be considered terrorists.

Why do they hate our seniors?

The Senate blocked legislation on Wednesday that would let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices. Democrats couldn't muster the 60 votes needed to bring the bill up for a vote.

Under the Medicare drug benefit, private insurance plans negotiate with drug makers over the price of medicine for their customers. About 22 million seniors and the disabled are enrolled in such plans. Some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, contend the government could use its leverage to drive a better bargain than individual insurers, which would lower the cost of the program for taxpayers and seniors.

But Republicans countered Wednesday that the program is costing much less than expected precisely because it's the private sector, not the secretary of Health and Human Services, conducting the negotiations. They successfully blocked a motion to proceed to the bill. The tally was 55-42, five short of the votes needed to move ahead

So we get to stick with the current program as is. Let's see how that works.

 A senior picks a program before January 1 because that program's formulary contains their prescription drugs. Come February, the program decides to change the formulary and drop this person's drugs. That person is now stuck with needed drugs not being covered for the rest of the year. They can not change programs again until first of the year.

I know people will say this is the extreme and to them I say you are flat out wrong. This happens on a daily basis. I know of countless seniors that had to stop taking drugs or weren't able to pay for other things such as electric because of this screwed up system.

Last year when all the problems were coming out, John Boehner (then Majority Leader) would not even talk to the seniors in his district. They invited him to large meetings to speak, but that was always met with a form letter saying "the program works". His office was also very rude to people calling in. So why wasn't he in a hurry to go cheerlead for this great program when it was "working so well"? Simple - John Boehner is a typical Republican liar.

This is key reason why we need to enlarge our Senate majority come 2008. We have a very good possibility at doing it, and if we can keep the House majority (also something promising), then we can really revamp Medicare. This is something that effects everyone in this country - if you need it/will need it or not.

With the new Medicare program reaching it's first birthday, we are going to start hearing more stories like this:

Ever since Judy Clifford's parents died, she had planned to move with her husband into their Nashville, Tenn., home, which she knew so well.

"I felt like they were still there," says Ms. Clifford, who is retired. "I could see my mother standing at the sink washing dishes and my daddy watching TV, and I wanted to stay in the house because of that."

Instead, the two-bedroom ranch-style home is for sale for $122,000, the subject of a bitter tug-of-war between the Cliffords and TennCare, Tennessee's healthcare program for the poor and uninsured. TennCare has laid claim to the home to recoup the cost of caring for Clifford's mother, who was on TennCare when she died three years ago.

In the face of soaring Medicaid costs, Tennessee and every other state are required to set up a Medicaid estate-recovery program. Many have been launched only recently, and some - like Tennessee's - are becoming more aggressive. Often, they target the home because it's all that's left after beneficiaries have spent their assets to pay for nursing-home care.

But the varied ways in which states are going after these assets have produced confusion, anger, and even lawsuits. When a loved one dies, some families are stunned to lose the home, too, advocates say.

This is one of the leftovers we have from the 109th Congress. During the first months of 2006, states and citizens screamed about the problems of the new Medicare program. The Republican leadership went to the public and lied, saying that the program was working great. It wasn't. States that were already strapped for cash had to take drastic measures to help with the costs.

Now people are starting to pay for those costs. While the ultra-greedy 109th Congress, under the leadership of Republicans, worked hard to try and give tax cuts to the richest corporations, and the richest citizens, the poorest people of this country were ignored. America was given a stark reminder of poverty and the poor in this country when Katrina hit. How did our leaders respond? They tried time and time again to prevent the richest 5% of the country from having to pay an inheritance tax. These greedy bastards even tried to couple this legislation to a bill that would help the poor by raising the minimum wage. They just don't care.

Thinking about this story and the news yesterday of Saddam's verdict being upheld I have come to a conclusion. What George Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Frist, John Boehner, Tom Delay and all the other Republicans have done amounts to genocide. We saw that during Katrina, and it continued on last year with Medicare. It may not have been as dramatic as what Saddam did, but it was genocide none the less. Perhaps we should institute the "justice" that Iraq is doing and put these people on trial and if convicted, sentence them to hang. They work hard to kill the citizens they don't care for (the poor), so what is the major difference?

After 9 months of hell for seniors not being able to get or afford their necessary medications, look who decides to resign:

Mark McClellan will step down from his post as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the White House said Tuesday. "The president has the highest regard for Mark McClellan and appreciates the work he's done for the administration," said White House press secretary Tony Snow, according to the Associated Press. McClellan, who had previously headed the Food and Drug Administration, was tapped in 2004 to head the CMS, the agency responsible for the implementation of the Medicare prescription drug program. News reports this week said McClellan was expected to step down soon and would likely join a think tank.

I wonder if this story from a couple of weeks ago had anything to do with his sudden decision:

The federal government erroneously has reimbursed about 230,000 Medicare recipients for monthly premiums they paid this year for prescription drug coverage. For many, the checks — totaling nearly $50 million — have already arrived.

The refund will undoubtedly cause confusion, particularly because it comes with a letter that mistakenly instructs older people that their monthly premiums will no longer be deducted from their Social Security check.

Mark McClellan, who oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said people who get the check need to know two things. One, the money has to be returned. Two, their prescription drug coverage will continue.

"It’s very important for people to know their coverage is continuing," he said. "There’s no disruption at all."

To put it mildly Medicare has been a cluster fuck under the Bush administration. I can't help but think this is a way for Bush to try and get some of those vital senior votes this fall, especially since the senior age group attributes to the highest turnout in mid-term elections. I have enough confidence in our seniors though to know they won't be fooled by the smoke and mirrors that operate out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They went through hell this year because of a screwed up Medicare revamp and that revamp was not created by or passed by McClellan - it was the creation of Bush and the Republican Party.

No I am not talking about a sweet treat of a doughnut hole. This doughnut hole is part of the Medicare changes and is actually one that is really hitting seniors hard. It is a loophole in the new Medicare coverage that many seniors were not aware of, but are quickly finding out about. Here is how it works.

• Medicare part D will pay 75% of your prescription costs for the first $2,250 worth of medicines for the year.
• Once you reach that limit, the coverage drops to 0%, leaving seniors paying the entire prices
• Once you prescription costs hit $5,100 for the year then Medicare kicks back in and covers 95% of the costs.

Now these amounts might seem like a lot, but consider the number of drugs a lot of seniors are on. You get a person suffering from emphysema and congestive heart failure, then that person taking 15-20 different prescriptions a month is not out of the question. It is not uncommon for one person to have a monthly medicine bill exceeding $1,000 and in some cases $2,000 or $3,000.

So these people only got to pay $3,000 a year for their medicines. This isn't bad that bad, is it?

We over 33 million seniors in this country depend upon social security as their only source of income. The average monthly social security income for these people is only $1,000. If these seniors live in public/HUD housing, 1/3 of their income goes to rent. Now add into that the soaring energy prices, increasing prices at the grocery store and ever rising cost of living. These citizens of the United States are now struggling to scrape together every needed penny just to live and that is without their medicines. If a senior has to pay even $100 a month for their medicines (a very low amount), they are not looking at struggling even harder.

Since the new Medicare program went into effect first of the year, it has been coined a giveaway to not only the insurance companies, but also the drug companies. This could not be more true. I can sit here and tell you horror stories I hear every day of a citizen of this country, who spent their entire life working and being a good citizen, now being screwed over by the government in their golden years. While these people get the shaft from their country, the drug and insurance companies are seeing soaring profits.

Of course the Republicans are out singing their praises for this new program, as I pointed out here, while the Democrats are out talking about the actual problems. These problems are very real and ignored by the Republicans and the Republican controlled government. The Democrats are also working to right the wrongs of these programs:

Horror stories about people falling into the donut hole are beginning to roll in. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D - N.J.) has introduced a bill that will eliminate the coverage gap in Medicare Part D known as the "Donut Hole." This legislation would require Part D providers to offer uninterrupted drug coverage.

According to Senator Lautenberg, "Prescription drug plans that suddenly stop in the middle of the year are a cruel joke." In 2005 he offered an amendment to the Prescription Drug Plan that would have required Medicare beneficiaries to sign a disclaimer that they understood, in plain English, the coverage gap in their plan before they could enroll in a Part D plan. The amendment was defeated 43-56 with every Republican in opposition.

"The current coverage gap is fundamentally unfair and should never have been allowed in the first place," said Lautenberg.

A bill in the House of Representatives hopes to reduce the cost of prescription drugs by requiring Medicare to negotiate lower prices with the drug companies. Recent studies have found that drug prices charged by Medicare Part D drug plans are 46% higher than those paid by the Veterans' Administration that does negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies.

This information is supplied by NeedyMeds, a non-profit organization, who is out there to help people get their needed medications.

Now remember how I said the new Medicare program was a hand out to the drug companies? NeedyMeds even points out just how much of a handout this really is:

Drug costs paid by Medicaid had been controlled by a law passed in 1990 which ensured that Medicaid would pay no more that the best price paid by a commercial purchaser and would also pay no drug price increases that exceeded the rate of general inflation. Medicaid recipients were automatically rolled into Medicare Part D. Brand name drugs rose by 3.9 % in the first three months of 2006. This was four times the rate of general inflation. These drug prices where passed along to Part D enrollees.

This is corporate welfare sponsored by the government and given at the cost of healthy living for the seniors of this country. Now consider the Pandora's box of medicine. You have drug company representatives, who are very much like the lobbyists in Washington. These representatives' job is to go out to doctors offices and sell that doctor with their product. They do so with gifts, luncheons, you name it. Many doctors fall into this and start prescribing that companies drugs (don't believe me? Look around the doctors office next time your in at all those posters hanging on the wall and whose name is on them). That company now gets richer and they do so by the very limited wallets of our seniors.

Now onto the insurance companies. These are the biggest vultures. They are sending agents out to seniors homes pushing their coverage onto them. Just this week, I learned of one such case where a senior did not want to leave his old insurance and the agent from another company talked him into getting their coverage and said both plans would help him out. This was a flat out lie and actually ended up costing this senior, who has a monthly income of $700, a whopping $500 a month. This is because his Medicare now stopped picking up the extra because of the double coverage.

Insurance companies are out in full force trying to increase their profits and screw over our seniors. The government has acted as the enablers for this corruption that is costing our "greatest generation" dearly. The Democrats bill addresses this problem also:

The House bill also allows seniors to choose a plan administered directly by Medicare eliminating the outsourcing of drug coverage to private plans that has resulted in an expensive and complex program.

This legislation also extends the enrollment deadline to December 31 to eliminate the lifetime penalty now in effect. This bill also seeks to stop drug plans from increasing co-payments and creating administrative hurdles for changing plans mid-year.

What is needed of you out there is to help get this bill passed. We need to contact our representatives and senators and encourage them to pass this much needed legislation. With the way pensions are screwed with and insurances taken away from American workers today, every single one of us face the threat of being screwed over by Medicare in the future. We must put a stop to this now and tell the government we want the program fixed and the corporate welfare to stop.

Click here to contact your Representative

Click here to contact your Senator.

Please take a moment to help get this legislation through. Our seniors deserve it and the American people deserve it. We are all getting older and approaching the age of retirement and will soon need the same help ourselves.