on Feb 14th, 2006Medicare Prescription Drugs (Buy Your Own Chemistry Lab)
If you thought reading an organic chemistry book was tough, then why bother with the Medicare prescription benefit plan. This whole pile of crap was designed by pharmaceutical companies that have one goal: to make money.
When you eyeball the future, it’s obvious where the money is: the aging Baby Boomer population. So if you’re smart, you design the system to your advantage way before anyone has a clue of what you’re doing. This is the way politics always works. By the time you figure out how legislation directly impacts your life it’s too late. The damage has been done. And it’s usually impossible to change.
You can do something about the elected officials that voted for this nonsense. Vote them out in the mid-term elections. If you had trouble making a decision about whether to keep your existing plan or change it, eliminate the confusion. Vote these knuckleheads out of office. Get on the Network bandwagon. Repeat after me: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to FAKE it anymore!”
You might also try buying your own chemistry lab. Remember that fun gift you got as a kid for Christmas? Maybe you can try manufacturing your own prescription drugs. You may not get FDA approval, but who cares. What good’s the FDA these days anyway. They’re understaffed and approve drugs that have no long-term studies to really determine if a drug has a cumulative effect. All together now: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to FAKE it anymore!”
Dr. Jeffery A. Kerr, who cares for hundreds of older patients in southern Missouri, said: “Medicare drug plans have created significant hurdles that patients and physicians must jump over before getting their medications. The prescription drug plans are playing a dangerous game. In many cases, we’re dealing with frail, very vulnerable individuals.”
For years, commercial insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers have used similar techniques. But Dr. Kerr said the techniques used by some Medicare plans were more onerous and restrictive. They are also more noticeable, he added, because Medicare beneficiaries are high users of prescription drugs.
Rules of Medicare Drug Plans Slow Access to Benefits
By ROBERT PEAR
New York Times, February 14, 2006