Reply #34: I can't believe I have to agree with Lott on this [View All]

[queenjane]

This "benefit" is a giveaway to Bush's big pharma friends. My mother, 77, has been getting deeply discounted prices on drugs through the cards from the individual pharmas. These cards, with one exception, had no enrollment fee. Now these same companies have sent her terse letters announcing that once the Medicare drug "benefit" goes on-line, these cards are null and void. I can't really decipher the various plans, but we did figure that, with her current medications, it would cost her more to pay the premiums and co-pays than to buy her own drugs outright. HOWEVER, seniors are being blackmailed into signing up--if you don't enroll in the initial period, and decide to enroll later, you'll pay a late penalty for the rest of your life. So, she's enrolling in case she needs more prescriptions later.

If the Dems had any cajones, they'd take advantage of this opportunity to retool the benefit. I'm not holding my breath.