[hresources]

So who should have to pay for those drugs if not the individual? Where do the "entitlements" stop? I don't know about your situation, but if I had to pay $300.00 per month for drugs, I would get a second opinion.

[Miss Marple]

So, is Medicare going to pick up the tab for a second opinion? How much do you think that will cost?

I understand the constitutional argument about this, but you need to know that you haven't dealt with prescription prices lately. I take two medicines which I will probably take for the rest of my life. I have insurance, am not on Medicare.

I just checked the online discount pharmacy for the prices of my TWO medicines for one month. Please remember that seniors often are on many more medicines than two.

The monthly cost of my medicine, at an on-line discount pharmacy, is $204.27.

Now, I am willing to go back to means testing in Medicare. However, there will be howling about a cut-off line, and then you will have costs incurred from keeping track of income. It may be cheaper to give Ross Perot and others prescription drug coverage rather than set up another bureaucracy to keep track of who qualifies and who doesn't.

I am not addressing the constitutionality, because Medicare itself is unconstitutional, and we are not going to get rid of it any time soon. That is reality.

[crazykatz]

If you are a diabetic and have heart disease, your meds could cost you MORE than $300 per month. A person that I know who pays this amount is an ever-slim, never-smoked, non-drinker.

She is a widow about 50 and has no insurance.