Medicare May Now Limit Drug Plan Options

[Kadie]

Medicare May Now Limit Drug Plan Options
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer

Friday, February 24, 2006


(02-24) 18:20 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --


After promoting the wide choices available to the elderly and disabled for Medicare drug coverage, the Bush administration is now considering limiting those options.


In a 39-page memorandum to insurers, employers and others administering the drug benefit, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asked for advice on how to simplify the program in 2007.


The agency proposed limiting to two the number of drug plans that a company can offer per region. Many insurers now offer three, and since there are often more than a dozen insurers per region, consumers often have more than 40 choices.


snip...
Advocacy groups critical of the program said that limiting companies to two plans per region would not narrow choices enough. Nor would it ensure that the insurers had enough customers to give them enough clout when negotiating with drug manufacturers for lower prices, they said.

"Two lousy choices is no better than seven lousy choices," said Diane Archer of the Medicare Rights Center.



more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/24/national/w152419S78.DTL


yahoo link
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_he_me/medicare_drugs_3

[Mr_Spock]

1. Buffoons

These people couldn't hand out free lunches without accidentally poisoning the people who received them :eyes:

[truth2power]

13. Buffoons is right..

Now people can choose from 24 providers instead of 36 (nearly 40)?

Watta mess!! Another reason to say, "Everything Bushco touches turns to shit!! :nuke:

[salin]

2. This is such a mess

my mother lost her coverage (the insurance dropped prescription drug coverage plans as of dec. 31) - went through the confusion to get the "best" plan - which looks to be a worse deal than what she had - and now they want to tinker more... how many of the *best least problematic" plans will disappear?

[0007]

16. I lost my coverage also!

[depakid]

3. Gee, nobody saw that coming....

Yeah, right.

All that crowing about "competition" that THE MEDIA LIED ABOUT turns out, in fact -to be horseshit. Just like pretty much everyone in the public health community knew it would be.

If the Dems ever manage to somehow, by devine intervention, regain power, the first thing on the agenda needs to be media divestment and re-regulation.

[lovuian]

4. Bush bait and switch... Oh looky how great but alas it doesn't

work well lets make your plan worse and cut it...

if Elderly Americans don't have medicine they will die sooner...

[WePurrsevere]

5. This has been a diseaster from the beginning. It would have been better...

if social service, caregivers, pharmacists and health care professionals (nurses, doctors, etc) had written it, not the pharm companies.

Of course what I would highly prefer would be to see Ted Kennedy's idea for a national health care plan or something similar be put in place.

[Nomen Tuum]

19. Not only that, some of these companies have ALREADY gone INSOLVENT!

We've gotten a lot of complaints where companies got people to sign up and then reneged on paying claims. People are STUCK INTO PAYING INSOLVENT COMPANIES FOR A YEAR AND THEY CAN'T GET OUT!

[rox63]

6. It took over a month to get my Mom's drug coverage straightened out

I spent most of the month of January on the phone with Medicare, the insurer, and yelling at pharmacists who kept insisting on overcharging her. Finally got it straightened out a couple of weeks ago. But what about the elderly people who don't have anyone to advocate for them?

[SoCalDem]

22. what about them?

they die, and cease to be a "problem"...:cry:

[babylonsister]

7. I'd love to see pharmacists cause a huge stink over this!

:grr:

[juliana24]

12. They already are! Being sworn at daily is wearing thin.

[SoCalDem]

8. What's NEXT?.. "Our card is SHINIER"

Noooo.. OUR card has more plasticky yummyness

Noooo..OUR card is Lemon-scented

[Nomen Tuum]

9. It's insane

I work at Social Security's 800# and we're FLOODED with Medicare D Problem calls. Even when people call Medicare directly, they're told to call us! THe incompetency is UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zann725]

14. I called Medicare directly...after many, many tries...and was blatantly

lied to by the Medicare worker (whose name and I.D. I wish I saved)... who "checked her compuers and found the best plan for me"...which she said had a $250 deductible per year?! And one which listed the cost of the drugs I use at TWICE the cost my AARP plan currently does.

There are MANY plans with NO annual deductible. And many with lower drug costs than the one referred to me by Medicare employee. It could've been a "mistake," but somehow I doubt.

Medicare employees testified before the Senate last year that they were attending classes where they were being told to "lie" to callers about benefits of Privatization of SS. And that if they did NOT, one supervisor in particular being interviewed, said she was threatened with sanction or firing.

[sarcasmo]

15. Isn't that called passing the buck.

I bet you have some stories to tell. I am surprised they don't outsource that SSN call center, like the Dictator says it's good for the country.

[Nomen Tuum]

18. They tried (so far they failed) to outsource SSA's 800#

Several companies (john Hancock, Citibank, H & R Block) proposed to take over Social Security's 800# and have the calls answered OVERSEAS in India, Israel or Ireland! They also proposed to pay these phone workers LESS than Minimum wage to take applications, process Social Security Number applications and take changes.

HELLO! Do you want someone in Israel, Ireland or India getting YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER and giving it to their friends?

[sarcasmo]

21. Nobody does, except for this current administration which thinks

outsourcing is great for the country.

[anitar1]

10. I did join one and now my co-pay is 10 bucks more. That adds

up fast when millions are paying more. I don't use many meds, and am thankful for that as I would be paying more for each one.One day we will hear that the program is over. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.Thank God I am old!! At least I have satisfaction knowing that I may leave this crappy world in a few years. I feel sorry for the young ones, sincerely.We may end up in a Soylent Green world after all. Apologies to all for being such a downer.My friends very elderly mother has a large ,golden screw, mounted on a plaque, sitting on her kitchen table.Engraved on it is "Where the Hell are my golden years?"

[SoCalDem]

11. Isn't that sad? I feel the same way.

I am actually glad that i won't have to put that many more years in..

Maybe that's the plan after all..Kill off as many boomers as possible so the "stress" is less on the system:(

[Nomen Tuum]

20. Where are the GOLDEN YEARS?

Hell, these ARE golden years for Republicans, after all the rich ones get golden parachutes.

As for the rest of us, all we get are GOLDEN SHOWERS...

[jkappy]

23. Is there life before death?? n/t

[leQ]

17. like all things repuke, this will backfire.

i'm in the middle of fighting with the plan i'm on. they know they're wrong in making the pharmacy charge me a co-pay, but they have to perform a million steps before they can correct it. i think what's happening is these providers thought there was pie in the sky, and all of a sudden they're seeing bad meat. ya, it's a real messs.