Part D Fiasco

GREENSPAN FOR PRESIDENT

When Republicans suggested Medicare Prescription Drug coverage, I applauded. Generally, I'm into smaller government. But, that hit below my high ideals, right around the area of my pocketbook. I've been trying to figure out how to make Medicare Part D work for me for a couple of days now. I just don't think it's going to.

I'll get into specifics in a minute, but before I lose you, I want to compare Medicare Part D to the whole managed care fiasco. My mom works with managed care. She says the whole thing is just a mess. To control a few fat cat doctors, we created a whole layer of fat cat bureaucracy to carry more and more money out of the whole system, causing the cost of everything to go up. Then, all the doctors and all the hospitals had to hire more personnel to deal with all the forms that this fat cat bureaucracy wanted filled out in triplicate. And the personnel that had to be hired, unfortunately had to be paid pretty well, because the resulting mess requires a MENSA candidate to figure out. Okay, now don't forget, managed care was supposed to SAVE us money, right. Well, have we done the same thing with Medicare prescription drugs, replaced a system that wasn't wonderful, with a whole lot of mid-level bureaucrats who we're going to pay to solve the problem. I just have a bad feeling that the bureaucracy is going to cost us more than the problem was costing us.

I'm on disability for a condition that causes me a lot of anxiety. I have been taking 1 mg of clonazepam (generic Klonopin) every night for a while. None of the plans in this area offer generic Klonopin or Ativan or Xanax (high anxiety meds I could maybe substitute for the Klonopin) So, Medicare Part D means I'm going to have to go off my narcotic unless I can appeal and get it covered. I think I can get my other three drugs for about $76/month. Maybe that doesn't sound like too much to you, but it's about the same as I've been paying . . . except I'll be getting one less drug.

I always assumed that when Congress funded prescriptions for Medicare recipients, they'd seriously cut funding for pharmaceutical companies. If I'm not mistaken, a lot of the funding was given with the understanding that while most of it would of course be used for research, the companies would also offer programs to give complementary medications to the poor. I've been getting free Wellbutrin from Glaxo-Wellcome for years. Wellbutrin is an enormously expensive little drug. I was pretty thankful. It's totally unique. There's nothing else that you can substitute for it. Now, I may have to switch to the generic version. To me, it just doesn't seem to work the same. I'll try it again, though.

I was thinking: What is congress going to do about drug company funding? There are a lot of indigent people who are not on Medicaid or Medicare . . . the working poor, in a way the most unlucky of all. I think Glaxo-Wellcome has thought of this. I have been noticing commercials saying how much they need that research money. Ya know, I wish Alan Greenspan would run for president. I think he's about the only one I'd trust to see the long view.