A check from Uncle Sam gets your attention, even if the money doesn't help that much with the bills. More than 750,000 Medicare recipients with high prescription costs each got a $250 government check this summer, and 3 million-plus more checks are going out to people who land in the program's anxiety-inducing coverage gap. Democrats, running scared in an election year, are trying to overcome older people's mistrust of the new health care law, which expands coverage for younger generations by cutting Medicare payments to hospitals and insurers. Will the ploy work? "It's like a teaser," says Virginia Brant, 65,...
