I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
again?
wo0ooohoooo
twosies?
trifecta?
wow...quartet?
um...big pharma profits are way up, what's the problem ?
goin fer five...wish me luckj
THe ecsalator grinds on.....
Um, Medi-CARE?
"By all accounts"? Do we have any linky?
Dearest, I believe you mean MediCARE - MediCAID is fucked up as well, but it is currently the MediCARE drug program that is fucking with people.
sorry, WGG. i hate to break a streak.
What...old people need medicine?
Next you'll be telling me that kids need lunch at school.
Grover Norquist's cozy relationship with Jack Abramoff should surely add lustre to his reputation. Perhaps a pen with no improvements
(Tax-Free Wonderland) could be provided for him
somewhere in the Dakotas.
This is solving the Social Security crisis. If you die from lack of medication, you're no longer a drain on the system.
...And everybody LOVES Doughnut Holes!
And where the hell IS the Democratic version of Grover Norquist? Who does their marketing over there, Bugger Me Elmo?
If I was in any way likened to Grover Norquist, I'd check in for electric shock therapy.
In particular, the Dems should be pushing Federal reimbursement of the states for their emergency programs as soon as Congress is back in session.
from below:
Serious question here about Iran:
Do you honestly think that they would be developing anything nuclear if we weren't tied up in Iraq? I believe that they saw that we'd be tied up in this mess militarily and monetarily for a good amount of time, and took advantage of it.
I think that they have had the ideas of developing nuclear weapons for a long time. It makes sense for them to want to do so as deterrance, since they had a giant war with Iraq that killed untold numbers of their people. This, and of course the fact that nuclear Israel seems to feel it can run roughshod over any other country in the region with impunity.
But I'd agree that they wouldn't be thumbing their noses at us about it like this unless they knew our balls wer in a vise with Iraq, with their hand on the crank.
Dearest, I believe you mean MediCARE - MediCAID is fucked up as well, but it is currently the MediCARE drug program that is fucking with people.
Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
grover and jack
high on smack
monkey on back
and ass in the slammer
Mr. Tena spent about a week trying to decipher this trainwreck and figure out where his mother is and what she needs to do to make sure she's covered.
He couldn't figure it out completely. If a corporate lawyer can't figure this shit out, then I don't think anybody can. Corporate lawyers spend their days with dense legal documents and confusing shit. This damn Medicaid thing just about confounded him completely.
Morning batties -
This damn medicare thing.
My mom and dad are retired and having a hell of a time with their drug plans.
I told them I think the "plan" is to get the older folks so flustered that they just don't sign up out of frustration.
BTW, that was similar to how Bush ran the CHPs program in Texas - didn't advertise it, didn't make it clear, and made it so onerous no one signed up.
Atrios is right, but unfortunately the democratic party will do no such thing. Why? Because the Vichy minority party doesn't have the will to fight as a unified force. Sure, under Reid and Pelosi they can sometimes muster themselves to oppose specific legislation. Maybe a couple of high-profile democrats will say in passing that this is a FIERY WRECK, but then they'll go off on a tangent or let themselves get bogged down in minutiae. Democrat leaders have attention deficit disorder, they don't know how to hammer on a point until it gains traction.
When it comes time to draw up and implement a battle plan every democrat runs around doing their own thing. Our national democratic figures are like that untalented kid who gets stuck in right field in little league baseball, the one who is distracted by a butterfly or leaf when the ball finally comes his way.
Do you honestly think that they would be developing anything nuclear if we weren't tied up in Iraq?
I honestly don't think there's any relationship.
Perhaps the rule should be: if your society can't produce a jet plane, locomotives, or autombiles from your own tech, you're not ready for nuclear power or weapons.
I suggested the other day that the Dems get something going kind of like the Drudge Report, where they could always be ahead of the story. This is the perfect set up. Yet the Dems will let it die on the vine, before it can flower into a full fledged scandal, as it deserves.
and they shell game your medicaid away...just like choosing your energy supplier and school vouchers.
america, home of the scam.
If I were the Democratic version of Grover Norquist...
Um, with all due respect, Atrios, but if you were the Democratic version of Grover Norquist, we'd hear things along the lines of the following:
"Atrios certainly does not speak for me!" --Nancy Pelosi
"That Atrios doesn't speak for me. Now give me that goddamned microphone!" --Joe Biden
"Atrios? Who's Atrios? I have never heard of an Atrios. Are there some bombs I can authorize the dropping of now?" --Hillary Clinton
"Atrios represents the far, far, far left extremist wing of no party that I belong to." --Joe Lieberman
"Atrios' attacks on the very foundation of American society show how far out on the fringe the democrat party as become." --David Brooks
"Ignore Atrios. Come to the next DLC meeting and I will tell you all that is right about the Medicare program and why the donkey must cooperate in order to win." --Marshall Shitmann (I mean, "Wittman").
as i said, i think both parties should get off their asses and fix this law right away if they know what's good for them. this simply hits a demographic that votes
The whole point of this plan was to confuse fuck out of old people and enrich Big Pharma.
wow res...that was even better than a "blahblah."
And that's sayin' somethin' :D
(Oh damn, don't hate on me for saying "Democrat leaders". I was thinking "Democrat Party" and "democratic leaders", wrote it wrong. Sorry.)
The Dems oughta relentlessly hammer away at what a crappy scam 'Part D' is -- and have their own comprehensive drug plan in hand-- before the '06 elections!
Atrios is right, but unfortunately the democratic party will do no such thing. Why? Because the Vichy minority party doesn't have the will to fight as a unified force.
Well, I did read this morning that the Democrats are working to delay the vote on Alito and if they can do that, the situation might change as more Repugs get indicted.
res hits it perfectly. That, sadly, is EXACTLY the reaction the party would have to its own version of Norquist.
Is Alito really Azazael?
A fiery wreck for sure. A few days ago, I was in my local pharmacy and I asked the two pharmacists how the new Medicare drug plan was going. One of them nearly shouted at me, "Don't even ask!"
The are having to turn people away because whatever agency they apply with does not give them proper documentation, or because their drugs are not part of the plan. The pharmacists hate doing this because they know that stopping medications can be life-threatening for some of their customers.
Some folks turn themselves away because they cannot afford the deductables or the co-pays. This plan is a miserable failure, and unfortunately some willl pay with their lives.
Absolutely, emergency legislation is necessary right now. Dems, please, please get on this. Why do we have to beg?
i'll put $5 on the Dems will do nothing.
anyone want to take that bet ?
Well, I did read this morning that the Democrats are working to delay the vote on Alito and if they can do that, the situation might change as more Repugs get indicted.
It's the 'Wishful Thinking' component of that that scares me!
plantsman - oh give me a break - wishful thinking.
I was depressed as shit yesterday. This gives me some hope.
Spare me the crap about wishful thinking. None of this is over yet - it's just getting started.
What's indisputable is that Jack A. *NEVER* gave a dime of "his own money" to a DEMOCRAT. NOT ONE.
This medicare/medicaid shit is just plain fucked up.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/20...1/14/93519/
9520
Actually, beloveds, it's both Medicaid and Medicare.
One of the provisions of the damned plan was to force Medicaid clients to move from the Medicaid drug plan to this barbarity - in California it was done effective 1 January and within two weeks had created such hell that the State has now intervened.
Tena, give ME a break! I'm not trying to harsh your buzz here. Quit expecting our depressions are gonna coincide.
"video with weeping granny unable to get her drugs "
Don't forget the toddler asking what he can do about the War on Drug Costs for Grandma.
Tena,
To cheer you up some more you should read Steve Gilliard's post on Alito. He seems to think the corporate media journamalists are starting to take the Alito thing seriously. I hope he's right, but it is something cheery to read for today at the very least.
puppethead - I read Steve's post this morning on the Keyboard Commandos but I guess I didn't see the one on Alito.
I'll check it out, thanks.
Wow, Zergle, here's a quote from your diary at Kos:
"I'm just tired of making old people cry."
She then pulled back with a look that said "Please don't tell anyone I said that"
What is everyone so afraid of?
This bill was written by and for PHRMA. I told that to my pharmacists, and they were not aware of that.
Okay, while we're sitting here, whimpering that the Medicare thing is messed up, and Alito going to get confirmed, etc., and we think our Democratic leaders are sitting on their asses, what are WE -- YOU AND ME -- going to do about it? We sit around saying THEY ought to do something. How about WE launch a e-mail-writing campaign to our congresscritters -- saying if they don't stand up for our issues, we're going to look for alternative representatives in the next election. Let's get organized. Let's hit each congressman massively. There are enough of us across the blogosphere that could make a difference, if we just WORKED TOGETHER.
The Medicare plan is a bust? But, but, who knew at the time they voted for it? Must have been an act of God.
Next thing, those damn liberals will be blaming Our Leader and his chorus for all the problems.
Well plantsman, all I can say is that "wishful thinking" is a perjorative and an insult about what I was saying.
It implies that I'm unrealistic. I may well be, but I didn't claim everything was ok or that it was going to be. I just said I read that the Dems aren't ready to vote on Alito and are trying to buy some time.
Why do you hate any free market solution? Why must everything be a free ride? Don't dems pay ANY taxes?
Why is the House not back in till the end of January again? Which law enacted this "Delay"?
maybe you and i would like to see the dem leaders fanning out across the country to seize the moment on yet another issue, but i don't think it's gonna happen...
as peter daou so articulately points out, the progressive netroots bloggers - US - are voices crying in the wilderness as the united states enters perhaps the most critical and dangerous period in its history...
This, then, is the reality: progressive bloggers and online activists -- positioned on the front lines of a cold civil war -- face a thankless and daunting task: battle the Bush administration and its legions of online and offline apologists, battle the so-called “liberal” media and its tireless weaving of pro-GOP narratives, battle the ineffectual Democratic leadership, and battle the demoralization and frustration that comes with a long, steep uphill struggle.
[...]
The hellish reality progressive bloggers have acknowledged and internalized is still alien to the party establishment. Dem strategy is still two parts hackneyed sloganeering and one part befuddlement over the stifling of their message.
Maybe the Democratic establishment wants it so, maybe they don't know better, but progressive bloggers and activists are starting to see the bitter reality of their isolation...
every day i wait, thinking TODAY will be THE DAY... TODAY, people will look around them, read the news and say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH... but it ain't happening... every day, things get worse and worse, and every day, nothing happens...
http://takeitpersonally.blogspot...e-might- as.html
He seems to think the corporate media journamalists are starting to take the Alito thing seriously.
What the jolly red fucK!!!
does anybody other than me think it's just a little fucking late for that?
.
Where in hell are the dems???????
I work in a IV infusion pharmacy.Somebody in Medicare forgot that fact. NO iv meds are covered under the plan. So what happens is therapy is delayed while trying to get the meds prior authorized because most state mediCAIDS backed out when a patient is on both medicaid and medicare. They end in the hospital longer adding to the cost of hospitalization, increasing chance of hospital infections..... it's so screwed up. People will get hurt and our cost will increase.
If the Veteran's Administration can go out for pharma bids on all the drugs the Vets need, how do we force that God damn bastard Bush to allow Medicaid to do the same. The same couple of drugs cost Vets 200.00 that the seniors are forced to pay 1100.00. What's wrong with this picture?
This "free drug plan" has been a nightmare for my elderly mom. Nobody can give her the correct information. Not the Drug Stores. Not the Government. Not the Insurance companies who wrote this shit and are reaping the benefits.
Atrios is right, but unfortunately the democratic party will do no such thing. Why? Because the Vichy minority party doesn't have the will to fight as a unified force...-puppethead
It's simpler than that, and the same reason they wouldn't fight over Iraq. The Dems voted for it.
and did you get the part where, if you don't sign up in time...for every month you are late they add a percentage on to your co-pay for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. I work with adults in a group home, many who are in their thirties and on some form of medi-mess. that could mean hundreds of dollars a month for the rest of their lives because a parent or guardian couldnt figure out paperwork. There is even some rediculousness where i think you have to sign up if you currently qualify for medicare but don't need it because you have better insurance. the government completely forgot about people on medicare who arent old and tacked them on as an afterthought. Its been a complete disaster.
janeboatler - From what I've gathered, many companies have instructed their pharmacists to keep their mouths shut. They don't want to be seen as political. Plus I'm in Texas, so there ya go.
Ever since the Democrats became moderate statesmen they have forgotten how to be politicians, so I'm afraid Atrios suggestions will fall on deaf (not to mention inept) ears.
-- mort
A great WSJ article on the subject atypically available free...
Atrios, thanks for finally bringing this disaster of a pregram to more people's attention. I am on Day 4 without my migraine meds. And I had to pay full price for some other meds.
My dad was bitching about having the same problems with his drug coverage. I asked him who he voted for (Bush) and said he is getting EXACTLY what he seemed to want. Incompetence and higher bills. He STFU after that..
many companies have instructed their pharmacists to keep their mouths shut. They don't want to be seen as political. Plus I'm in Texas, so there ya go.
Zergle, I'm sure that's true. I'm in Louisiana, a red state too, and the pharmacists at my drug store apparently didn't get the memo, or they are just so mad that they don't give a shit about the memo.
My wife's enrollment in the AARP plan went smoothly, and the pharmacy had no problems. However, she has a new prescription and it is not on the formulary. The AARP only offers a discount of about 33% off what seems to be list price, or about $6 a pill. 67% of exorbitant is still exorbitant. This is not insurance; it is just a niggardly discount card.
If I am mad, then there must be millions of others.
You would only do that if you wanted to win. Apparently the Democrats are paid by Republicans to lose. I can't think of any other reason that they act like Colmes.
I'm disabled and on medicare.
My meds cost over $200 per month.
There are so many different possible plans to join that its very confusing, so medicare has helpfully set up a website to show you al the options. Punch in your meds, your dosages, your zip, and it will tell you what plans there are for you, what the cost is, and what local pharmacies accept them.
Great, right?
Well, I used their tool. The cheapest plan would cost me $250 per month, plus a few other misc. charges that I couldnt quite figure out, and still would only cover 2 of my 5 medications. The others I'd have to pay out of pocket.
40 some-odd plans available to me, and the cheapest one would still cost me more than just paying out of pocket.
Its a scam.
One of my medications is listed as a "Step" which means I have to try soething else before they will let me have it. Unfortunately - noone can tell me what the "Step" is. Not my Dr - not my Pharmacist and not my HMO.I have been paying $81.00 to have this filled and as a Tier 2 I would only pay $26.70. Wouldn't it make more sense to leave it at the $81.00
cost as a Tier 3 - rather than have me jump through hoops to have it at $26.70?
Hi, I'm mad as hell, too. So there are at least 2 of us.
>Scott Lemieux< The problem with that WSJ article is that it isn't just "a glitch." It is so much more evil than that, and to call it a glitch is pure right-wing spin. Even the L.A. Times article, again today, duh! poor people can't get their drugs, yet. misses the main point. It isn't just poor (old and disabled) people who can't get their drugs, or who are having to pay more for their drugs, EVERYONE (who doesn't have enough money to not really need medicare) is paying more. And the Insurance Co's are as complicit as the Pharmas, yes. They've automatically rolled everybody that's in HMO type coverage into Part D. No, you're written consent wasn't required. They didn't bother to check if someone actually had free drugs (e.g. a pension benefit) before doing this. The result: you got cancelled by your pension - cause apparently they're all hooked into the same SS database. The pensions had threatened by letter not to reinstate people who enrolled in Part D. Even if your pension will admit it was "an honest mistake." They are demanding written proof that you've been "disenrolled" from Part D. The fuckup goes on and on and on.
The HMO's excuse for this was that they didn't want drug coverage to be interupted for their patients. (We, for example, had seldom used the HMO's drug coverage, it was just a standard feature of the HMO plan, last year!.) Ths excuse sounds very reasonable, doesn't it! But try to get them to level with you on this. You'll be on the phone for hours.
Addiotionally, then, all that crap on TV about it being "optional" and you don't have to decide until next May, was extremely misleading for a great great many of us.
The Repubnicans real purpose is quite simply to destroy Medicare before the Boomers get there. And as for the V.A being able to at least negotiate prices with the Pharmas. Well don't hold your breath. I've heard a rumor, I forget where, that the Repugs want to privatize the V.A. One reason offered to explain that? Well, it's an actual, pretty well functioning model of "national health care."
Ha ha ha...
Who didn't see this one coming?
Medicare Scam Artists Targeting Seniors
Scammers Hit Senior Citizens claiming to Help with Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D Scams Already Reported (warning PDF)
This is like Medicare Part Katrina.
Characters Remaining:
Commenting by HaloScan
