Fantastic start for the newest entitlement program:
Low-income Medicare beneficiaries around the country were often overcharged, and some were turned away from pharmacies without getting their medications, in the first week of Medicare’s new drug benefit. The problems have prompted emergency action by some states to protect their citizens.
Although there are no hard numbers, concerns expressed by state officials and complaints from pharmacists suggest a widespread pattern of problems.
At least four states – Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Vermont – acted this week to make sure poor people received the drugs they were promised but could not obtain through the federal Medicare program.
Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican, said the state would pay drug claims for low-income people until the federal government fixed problems in the new program, known as Part D of Medicare. Michael K. Smith, the state’s secretary of human services, said, “The federal system simply is not working.”
On Thursday, the Vermont Legislature passed a bill declaring, “There is a public health emergency due to the federal implementation of Medicare Part D, which has resulted in serious operational problems, causing Vermonters to be turned away at the pharmacy without the drugs they need.”
I can’t even come up with a snarky comment, although I guess it should be noted that the incompetence of the previous Congress and this administration has succeeded in one area:
Leaving me speechless.
Jimmie
Pick your perfect President and your perfect Congress and this would still have been a nightmare filled to the brim with errors and horrible inefficiency. The problems have little to nothing to do with who set them in motion and everything to do with how big, complex, and laden with bureaucracy the program would always have to be.
The mistake wasn’t in any part of the implementation. It was in starting the program in the first place.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
So Bush and DeLay (who kept the vote open for 3 hours) get a pass?
Nah.
Ancient Purple
A serious request here:
Can anyone please explain to me how it was beneficial to the American people to disallow Medicare from bargaining for cheaper drug costs through competitive bidding?
I forever will never understand how negotiating a cheaper price was NOT in the best interest of the American public.
Pooh
What’s good for
Merck & PfizerGeneral Motors is good for America.srv
What Pooh said. This isn’t about public health. This is all about corporate welfare.
When will people understand what America is really all about?
Hint: It’s not about you (all 290 Million of you).
Pb
srv,
Judging from all the commercials I’ve been seeing on TV lately, the corporations certainly seem quite ready to jump on the Medicare Prescription Drug gravy train. That tells me everything I need to know about it.
John Cole,
I’m totally not surprised that the party that believes big government doesn’t work proves once again that they can’t properly manage a big government program.
And really, why should they suddenly start caring about helping out the poor here? They didn’t care when they were busily cutting funding for food stamps (and many other vital assistance programs) with one hand, and writing up more tax cuts and blank corporate welfare checks with the other hand…
Kimmitt
Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Richard Bottoms
You go to war with the president you have. Thanks much to the dumbasses who voted for him.
ppGaz
The litany of failures of this Republican government just goes on and on, punctuated by approximately monthly outbursts to the effect that you can’t bring yourself to vote Democrat.
It’s become … charming. Yes, it’s charming now. At first it was puzzling, then it was infuriating, then stupefying. Now it’s just charming.
Let’s mark our calendars. It’s the first day of the second week of January. Let’s see if we can make this year’s markings form some sort of visual pattern. Maybe if we color it in we can create a moire.
Slide
ahhhh….the competence of the “grown-up” party is truly stupifying. From Iraq to Katrina to Homeland Security to Medicare, yep, these guys certainly do know how to run things.
Looks like they’ll be working their management wonders for Immigration next as they snuck in a political, incompetent, inexperienced hack in charge of that huge agency. This administration is all about nepotism, croynism, and corruption. The worst President ever coupled with the worst Republican congress ever. History will not be kind to the boy Emperor.
Hey, Republicans, how proud you must be. You got what you wanted – total control of the government. How are things going? lol
Stormy70
I believe this program is a disaster, and I know better than to rely on the governemnt to provide me anything when I reach retirement age. It will all be gone for my generation.
ppGaz
Indeed. Despite the fact that citizens, like me and the missus, knew a long time ago that this experiment in bamboozlement was going to be a disaster. When you are in the age and health brackets that make you eligible for this program, you are well aware, early on, that these people have fashioned a giant clusterfuck. I defy anyone to read the tide of paper that arrives in their mailboxes in 2005, concerning this program, and then sit down and write a coherent paragraph explaining what it is and what people should do about it. Can’t be done. And most of the material I’m talking about is coming from the corporate empires that lobbied the spuds into creating this clusterfuck in the first place …. it’s their fucking idea, and yet they can’t really explain it.
The spuds gave their corporate sponsors just what they wanted …. citizens can just go fuck themselves. Like I’ve been saying, it is going to take a long time to repair the damage that these assholes are doing to this country.
Meanwhile, people like John Cole, who apparently think that voting for a party is a social decision like deciding whose party to go to on New Years Eve, will continue to bemoan the difficulty in opting for a change in government. I figure it’s because he just doesn’t like Democrats. We aren’t, you know, loyal to each other like Republicans are. We openly disagree with each other on policy matters, and everything. I mean, doesn’t the Constitution say that being American is all about being loyal to a party and agreeing with each other? You know, “standing” for something. Like “sanctity of marriage” or “Iraqi freedom” or “family values.”
Our slogans just aren’t good enough, I guess. And you know, it’s all about slogans. According to our teacher, the slogan professor.
Stormy70
It’s the National Security, stupid. The Democrats don’t believe in it. Still waiting for their big plan to combat terrorism. I thought Howard Dean said we would get to see it in 2006. Of course, it has been 4 years since 9/11 and these plans take time, and lots of UN Summits, at $5000 a head, as well.
ppGaz
Well, that’s a stupid lie, told by a stupid liar, with all due respect.
And it’s one of the reasons why you now have a one-sided government that can’t shoot straight, can’t do anything right, is mired in scandal, and is running the finances of the country into a ditch while citizens can go to hell.
Lies have consequences, Stormy. Only a shithead Republican like you could try to blame the failures of an entirely Repubican government on Democrats.
And do it with a straight face.
You are a piece of work.
Slide
GFU Stormy. I’m sick and tired of the faux patriots telling me that Dems dont’ care about national securitiy. This president has done more to undermine our National Security than any president in recent memory. His policies have resulted in the DEATH of nearly as many Americans as died in 911. You remember 911? The event that happened on HIS watch, AFTER he received a memo basically sayign it was going to happen and he did fucking NOTHING. NOTHING.. not one meeting. NOTHING. ZERO, NADA.
Our war in Iraq has hurt our National Security.
Our fumbling in N Korea has hurt our National Security.
Our pissing off every friend we had internationally has hurt our National Security
Our secret prisons and abducting people from allied nations has hurt our National Security
Our torture policy has hurt our National Security.
Our plummeting approval in the Muslim world has hurt our National Security.
Our staffing of FEMA with political hacks has hurt our National Security.
Our staffing of Immigration with political hacks has hurt out National Security.
Our letting OBL go in Tora Bora has hurt our National Security.
Give me a fucking break. This is the WORST PRESIDENT ever and he has done more to elevate OBL that a thousand jihadist warriers.
Stormy70
I don’t think our foreign policy is a loser. I am patient for it to work and it is working. I guess under the Democrats all those emerging democracies would have been SOL, since the Dems would have taken 4 + years to respond. They would have to study the problem or something.
Do you know what the Dem’s National Security plan is? Really, do you need to belong to the club to know what it is, or is the plan to root for failure, so the Dems can swoop in with I told you so’s.
HIstory turns slowly, so we wait. But Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Libya are slowly changing towards more free elections. And Syria is nervous.
Stormy70
Slide – What is the Democrats plan for National Security. Why should John jump ship to the Democrats without a tangible alternative plan from the Democrats? How do you lure those foreign policy voters back to the Democratic fold? Or does your head spinning off from Bush Derangement Syndrome show them the true way in National Security?
ppGaz
Okay, this nexus of the faux outrage of John Cole plus the drunken verbal slaps of Stormy is just a little more fun than I need on this beautiful Sunday.
You Republicans can go suck each other’s faces and swap spit with each other, you deserve each other, really.
Slide
ppGaz I’m with you on that. I’m off to a nice leisurely day in East Hampton. Bye bye all
whatsleft
Stormy – Democratic plan has been clearly presented, as well as refined over the past several years. It’s just that you refuse to acknowledge it. It includes: Cargo and port security as a primary concern, rapid withdrawal from Iraq coupled with bringing in more Arab-friendly consultation and help, disentangling FEMA from the disaster of Homeland Security (Democrats never wanted FEMA brought in under HS umbrella), one-on-one talks with N. Korea, actual diplomacy with our allies and wannabe allies instead of strong-arming, blustering and bullying, and working with UN coalitions on problems since terrorism is a global problem, just to name a few off the top of my head.
I’d like to know what the REPUBLICAN National Security plan is. “Stay the course” is not only not a plan, but has been a disastrous policy from the first laissez-faire day it was started. It’s more like, I’m too lazy to come up with an actual plan, it’s just easier to let things go on the way they are, regardless of what happens.
Pooh
ppG and Slide, she’s got a point. Whatsleft summarizes a good plan (though I might disagree with leaving Iraq now). However, that’s not the message I heard in ’04. I heard “Anybody but” (and it was good enough for me, but not for enough other people…)
Though I agree with Publius that focusing on Nat’l security is a loser for us, simply becausethe issue is an unholy Charlie-Foxtrot – it should be “corruption and incomptence” all day, every day.
Pb
Pooh,
I heard it. Did you watch the debates? I don’t know if that was the focus per se, but it was all in there, along with the retrospective on the previous 4 years of (mis-)leadership.
You know, it always pains me a bit to re-read these old debate transcripts with the benefit of hindsight. Maybe we should start having debates a year earlier, and then review them right before the election, to find out who was lying.
I was just reading through the 9/30/2004 debate transcript, and I could come up with quite a laundry list of Bush’s lies–including many things that he must have known were false at the time, but hardly anyone else did. As for Kerry, he’s pretty much dead on–I could similarly come up with a list of all the places where he was subsequently proven right. And it was the same in 2000. But hey, who cares about the facts… :(
Pooh
Pb, I’m not saying you are wrong, I’m saying the message didn’t stick. You don’t need to convince me, I’m on board already. The mere fact that the debate was on Nat’l security was a loser for us. Much like having to discuss gay marriage was a loser. Conversely, if the discussion this time around is about a “culture of corruption”, there is no way the GOP can win that argument right now.
Stormy70
That is not a plan, that is wishful thninking. Our “allies” in Europe have a revolving door policy with terrorists, and if you kidnap a citizen from a country like Italy, they just pay them off. Or let terrorists who kill American people and hijack airplanes go. Arab countries share the blame for allowing terrorism to fester in their midst. One on one’s with North Korea, let’s ask Madeline Albright about how well those went in the nineties.
Work with the UN? Oil-for-Food proves how well that went. Or should it be Sex-with -your underage kids for food in the Congo? The UN is corrupt. Tell me, which “global” issue have they ever had a hand in fixing? It certainly isn’t getting aid to the Tsunami areas quicker than the US, Australia and Japan. The UN is completely useless, and are part of the problem. What is the military plan if this does not work? Would I be able to trust a Democratic President to take care of Iran? Or do the cries from the left that say “who is America to tell another country what to do?” Why would I trust a party that refuses to allow military recruiters on college campuses because they disagree with the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy put in place by Congress. They won’t protest their congressman, becuase the money spigot might be turned off.
Why should I trust a party that seems to coddle up to every dictator that hates Bush, despite the crackdown of human rights in their country against dissenters. I am looking at you, Castro and Chavez.
This is not a concrete plan. The world should know if you declare a War on America, we will destroy you. Not throw a $100,000 soire, complete with high dollar hookers at the latest UN hot spot, so we can pretend to be making progress against our enemies. Countries do not have friends, and basing your foreign policy on such nonsense will not go over well.
whatsleft
Jeebus Stormy, there are so many stupid things in your post, that it’s hard to know where to start. Terrorists enjoy a revolving door in Europe? N. Korea was less contained in the nineties than it is now? Sanctions against Iraq didn’t work?
The money quote:
Hmmm….
The rest of your rant just degenerates into gibberish. Scotch anyone?
Slide
I repeat. Stormy’s posts are idiotic.
Tulkinghorn
I’ll take mine neat, thanks.
Pb deserves credit for re-reading the debates. Since the venture in Iraq is unable to meet any of the strategic goals set out to justify it (I said strategic, stormy), the main battle left is over the historical interpretation of the whole sad story.
I can’t wait for the memoirs to come out in four years…
Stormy70
You think Iran and Saudi Arabia hasn’t noticed all out hardware conveniently parked in the middle of Iraq? With access to a port, where more hardware can get in there fast?
All that firepower draws it’s own attention.
The Other Steve
Looks like Stormy’s been sipping the Scotch a bit too much this afternoon.
jolly
I love self-fulfilling prophecies. Stormy votes for incompetent politicians, then brags about her insights concerning incompetent government.
Words cannot convey the brilliance of her strategy.
ppGaz
Be that as it may, she will write and post them anyway.
Pb
Stormy,
Hey, we’re making progress. At least now that Iraq is under our control–as opposed to the previous two wars–all that hardware is actually there.
james richardson
I don’t know enough about the new bill to speak on it’s intricasies (sp?), but I know this: my grandmother, who is in constant pain, switched to a medicated patch recently because her pill-equivalents were upsetting her stomach immensely. The patch costs $125 for five of them. My mother, who handles my grandmother’s medication and paperwork needs, recently spent 45 minutes at the pharmacy attempting to sign my grandmother up. The end result? The $125 pain patches now costs $5.00. Make of it what you will.
ET
Interesting WaPo article today about Rove and this piece of crap masquerading as legislation. According to this article, his mojo was turned off.
Tim Fuller
Nobody can figure it out. It’s ‘working’ exactly how they figured it would.
Enjoy.