The complete failure of the Bush/DeLay Prescription Drug Disaster is the untold story of 2006. Families across the country are being tortured by the new program. The Washington Post reported on the District's problems which are mirrored across the country. It's considered a public health emergency:
The District will temporarily pay for medicines for thousands of elderly and disabled residents caught in the mess of computer troubles and bureaucratic breakdowns that have marked the new Medicare drug program's start, Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday.Bush, DeLay and the GOP never wanted a system that would provide coverage. So this is what happens when people who hate government set up a government program. And, make no mistake, they are nefarious enough to set up something doomed to fail. The problem being is that people will die because of this mess.
Neither Virginia nor Maryland has taken such action, though nearly two dozen states across the country have decided to cover the prescriptions of low-income beneficiaries as a public health emergency. Many people were being refused critical medications or were being charged as much as 80 times their usual co-payment.
All of these "dual eligibles" -- medically and economically vulnerable people who receive Medicare and Medicaid -- should have been shifted automatically Jan. 1 from local Medicaid drug provisions. But because of myriad problems with the new, incompletely tested system, some were never enrolled in new insurance plans, and others were put in plans that do not include their prescriptions.
