MD Urged to Cover Gaps in Medicare Funding

[MountainLaurel]

Note that despite the article title, it deals with the situation in the District as well as Maryland:

The new Medicare drug program, repeatedly slammed as a disaster during hearings yesterday in Maryland and the District, is putting elderly and disabled people at ever greater peril because of continuing difficulties getting their prescriptions, lawmakers were told.

In Maryland, advocates called on the state to immediately pick up the cost of medications and co-payments that the federal government otherwise would be handling under the Medicare Part D plan.

"A lot of very vulnerable people aren't getting their meds," said Herbert S. Cromwell, executive director of Community Behavioral Health of Maryland, which serves children and adults with mental health problems. "This is nothing short of a fiasco."

snip

"We preempted that problem," said Gurny, who disputed advocates' characterization of a public health crisis. "It may be in other states, but it certainly isn't in Maryland. I think people in Maryland are getting their medication, for the most part."

Gurny said he would forward legislators' request that Ehrlich provide emergency funding to provide more caseworkers. But he asked local health officials and community advocates for empirical evidence on the number of people in need. To which Del. Adrienne A. Mandel (D-Montgomery) responded, "You've asked for evidence, but how long can we wait?"

Imagine, a response like that coming from a Repuke . . . color me shocked. This entire thing is such a fiasco that it will be almost impossible for the Bushistas to make it go away, like they've done with every other fuckup so far. Even my relatively apolitical mother was on about this last night as she's been helping my grandmother figure out the system.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/24/AR2006012401592.html