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I think it will be great for people who have extraordinarily high expenses for medication. I'm not planning on signing up for it. The part of the plan to transfer Medicare recipients into HMO's stinks! I know from experience what HMO's are like and would not want to change doctors or medications, and have some my most important medical care restricted. There is a full two years before this plan goes into effect and there is plenty of time to work out the "kinks" in the plan.

The HMO criticism is valid. However, the bill provides for PPOs and out here the doctors ALL sign up for ALL the PPOs.

The State Medicaid is already HMO/PPO centered. The people I know who are on it have no complaints at all and when they dislike an assigned doc, they make a fuss and get the one they want. Usually, this arises when the favored doc is on a different rural rotation or out of the clinic for some esxtended time period.

From what I have observed, these patients are getting state-of-the-art treatment.

All laws are really written after passage in the regulatory process, AFAIK. This one will be tweaked. It is going to save money in the long run by offering drug threapy beforehand instead of surgury or other expensive and risky treatments after the patient enters via the ER in advanced distress.

I am not going to get upset over something that is still, by virtue of the process, just a raw framework. We are not in need of the drug benefit, but I know a lot of people who are. Also, one never knows what the future holds, healthwise or financially.

At the same time, I read that we are busting chops in Australia (and probably in other allied countries) to get them to pay more for drugs and by extension, for the research our government paid for w/our taxes. There are ongoing trade talks that have been reported to have gotten fairly rough over this topic. One article I saw, probably on FR, said we are using ag imports from Australia as one lever on this. Needless to say, the Australians are not happy.

I have experienced Aussie socialized medicine as a traveler there. The smallest amount of the necessary drug, the medication that has been in use for the longest time and the entire course prescribed for the shortest time possible. Damned near killed me by not knocking the bug out completely. Also, I needed a script for meds to counteract the side effects of the prescribed antibiotic. Those meds are OTC here. I came home, spent $40 for a script and $56 for an appointment out-of-pocket and was better in 3 days and completely cured in a 3 week course of a relatively new antibiotic not even offered over there. The useless Aussie course plus appointment cost me $86, so the cost was near equal, for the results.