Posted on 03/26/2006 10:46:37 AM PST by neverdem
TULSA, Okla., March 21 — When Virginia G. Shores went to a pharmacy here to pick up five prescriptions, she thought she heard the pharmacist say she owed $250, but she was wrong. The cost, with her new Medicare prescription drug card, was just $50.
"I was flabbergasted," said Mrs. Shores, whose kitchen counter looks like a medicine chest, full of pills for high blood pressure, heart failure, arthritis, nerve pain and lung disease.
Mrs. Shores, 80, had been buying medicines from a mail-order pharmacy in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but now uses Medicare instead. "I was amazed at the amount of money it saved," Mrs. Shores said. "It was hard to believe."
She is one of Medicare's satisfied customers. They are not vocal, they are not organized, but they say it was worth wading through the hassles, confusion and complexity of the new program to enroll.
Treasury Department figures show that Medicare spent a total of $5.1 billion on prescription drug benefits in January and February, the first months of the new program, which is expected to cost more than $675 billion over 10 years. Medicare officials say the program is paying for more than a million prescriptions a day.
One way to assess the program is to talk to people in a place like Tulsa. People here are far removed from the raucous debate in Washington, where Republicans describe the drug benefit as a boon to older Americans and many Democrats call it a disaster.
The experience of those who have enrolled is particularly significant because millions of Medicare beneficiaries face a May 15 deadline for signing up. Current beneficiaries who decide to join after that date will generally have to wait until Nov. 15 and will then pay higher premiums as a penalty for late enrollment.
In Oklahoma, Medicare...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The story has repeated examples of substantial, personal savings on the cost of medicine. I can't believe that this is on the NY Times front page! I have no love lost with socialism, but the pubbies need to find out how to exploit this.
Every now and again the truth seeps into the NYSlimes reporting.
One would hope that taxpayers subsidizing insurance companies to the tune of 5.1 billion dollars in two months time would have some effect.
Called Humana, they took the info on the phone and were extremely helpful.
Yeah, sure they will. I can write the whining stories that'll run this summer now.
Getting Big Stupid Government to force others to pay your bills must seem like magic to these newly-minted "beneficiaries".
Another unstoppable trillion-dollar-plus taxpayer obligation is gathering steam . . . . . thanks, Republicans.
We always had insurance but always told the doc we didn't. Be surprised how much lower the cost was.
We only took the kids to the doc's when we thought something was broken!!!!
Always paid the fee for service and never charged insurance.
Just old fashioned, I guess.
Blue Cross Blue Shield covers all the prescriptions my husband requires for high cholestrol and diabetes, and the summary for the first month showed that he paid $69 for $299 worth of drugs. It was very easy to get signed up and the service has been excellent. A friend opted to go the Walgreens route and simply takes her prescriptions in and they honor the Medicare D Plan (the drug plan) in their pricing. There is absolutely nothing confusing about this plan, contrary to what the lying Democrats have been saying. We really appreciate getting to have the plan and hope it can continue without breaking the federal budget. For our part, we will not run to the doctor for a prescription for every little thing related to getting old. I am over 65 and take no medication, thank God.
Hank, I offered the same sentiment a couple of days ago and was flamed.
Bingo! But don't mention free market, economics, or capitalism too loudly around here. There are some who think the terms are evil.
Old fashioned is a good thing. People have short memories. I remember 50 years ago when there were none of these social welfare programs where most of the tax revenues go to the "administrators" of the programs. These programs are just a means to employ lazy government slackers.
Congrats to you for not needing any maintenance medications at all! I wonder what small percentages of people at your ages are as healthy as that. Keep up the good work.
I'm 72 and don't take any meds. I still work and I still run. Staying busy and active keeps one young longer.
Keeping fingers crossed that all remains well.
WWWWWOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOO good for you!!!!!!
Like FDR and Social Security, and LBJ with Medicare, the new Bush prescription drug program is just more social engineering, aka. cradle to grave liberal socialism. In the end, this ever expanding federal bureaucracy will bankrupt America. A good argument can be made, with the debt ceiling just raised to $9-trillion, or $30,000 per citizen, America is already fiscally bankrupt.
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