The gap in the closing of Medicare's drug doughnut hole'

[cal04]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/27/AR2009122701206.html?hpid=topnews

Six years after Congress added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, Democrats in the House and Senate are poised to make a central change that they and most older Americans have wanted all along: getting rid of a quirk that forces millions of elderly patients with especially high expenses for medicine to pay for much of it on their own.

The closing of an unusual gap in Medicare drug coverage -- a gap that Republicans had, when they controlled Capitol Hill and the White House, insisted was needed for the government to be able to afford the program -- would "forever end this indefensible injustice for American's seniors," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in announcing that the Senate would join the House in supporting the change.

But details of the change underscore that, for patients and the federal budget alike, the implications of the sprawling health-care bills pushed through by congressional Democrats are more nuanced than lawmakers' talking points.

The Democrats and President Obama have been clear that the "doughnut hole," as the gap is known, would disappear gradually over the next 10 years. They have not mentioned that Medicare patients would, according to House figures, face a slightly larger hole in coverage during two of the next three years than they do today.

(snip)
During the second week in December alone, LeaMond said, AARP members placed 240,000 calls to 29 Senate offices, asking them to follow the House in eliminating the gap.

[nosmokes]

1. Ya think O met in secret w/ Pharma to craft a bill that benefitted regular

folks instead of the corporate oligarchy? Yeah, that's why it was all transparent and single payer played such an important role in the bargaining process.
FFS.

[Hoyt]

2. As one who has helped some elderly pay for drugs before any coverage under Medicare,

I'm appreciative of anything that improves the situation.

This is another area where the bill ain't perfect, but it's doing something positive that we haven't seen in awhile. And, I would not be surprised if the "hole" or a further portion is removed before the final bill.

I think there were two things I gave bush credit for: the main one being signing the drug bill (even with the so-called donut hole).