[gleeaikin]

"Medicare coverage and ads focusing on what was NOT given!"

I didn't see any of those ads, but a friend said on of the concerns was that Medicare was not allowed to negotiate with the drug companies for bulk pricing to be passed on the the Medicare recipients needing these drugs. I know that the VA must be doing something like this because we were able to get my husbands generic meds very cheaply.

Does anyone know more about this issue? My understanding is that this was considered a giveaway to the big drug companies, and made a lot of old folks mad.

[Mr Rogers]

I know 2 things -

1 I do not trust anything the AARP says, and

2 No politician cares more about drug companies than they do about 10s of millions of voters.

I also believe drug companies SHOULD be able to make a profit. 95% of attempts to make new drugs fail. It requires a high reward for companies to take that kind of risk - and the result are new drugs, like the one my Mom has taken instead of chemotherapy. It was experimental at the time, but her cancer has stayed in remission and I believe it is now widely available.

Since she preferred dying to chemo, the drug developed by one of those evil drug companies in search of a profit saved her life - and saved a ton of taxpayer money in chemo treatment.

But the AARP doesn't care about that. They have an agenda (all money all the time to old folks), and screw anything that involves free markets or decision-making by individuals!