Froma Harrup on Medicare Part D
By Froma Harrup
Once again, we have mob scenes of citizens begging for direction fromtheir inept federal government. The botched launch of the Medicare drugbenefit may not match the muddled response to Katrina in total tragedy,but it is causing trips to emergency rooms. Meanwhile, alarmed stateofficials are setting up crisis centers to ensure a continued flow ofpills to their elderly and disabled populations.
How much more of this can the voters take? The Republicans runningWashington are incapable of either designing a rational program orimplementing it. And for all their talk of being the party of nationalsecurity, you wonder how they would handle an unexpected terroristattack when they can’t even organize a drug plan with more than ayear’s lead time.
Many seniors who signed up for the program are learning that theyare nowhere to be found in the government’s computers. Pharmacistscan’t locate the needed billing information to fill prescriptions. Andpeople calling the Medicare hotline face hour-long waits to speak to ahuman being.
The situation is even more frantic for low-income Medicaidpatients, whose drug needs are now supposed to be met by Medicare. Someare being charged $30 for a prescription they’re supposed to get for$3.
Usually, a government program that costs far more than necessary atleast delivers gold-plated benefits with Swiss efficiency. But theMedicare drug benefits are mediocre. And Washington’s performance wouldbe an embarrassment in a Third World country.
The notion that $724 billion should buy a pretty nifty program isbased on the pre-Bush assumption that the objective was to help elderlyAmericans obtain their medications. At this price, you’d expect thingsto run as smoothly as a Microsoft annual meeting. And the Medicarehotline would be staffed by banks of velvet-voiced experts who answeron the first ring.
But the real mission was to force through another adventure inprivatization. The Republicans’ idea of a “free market solution” is agovernment program that lets private companies siphon out billions–andhides the unremarkable level of benefits in the fog of “choice.”
When you look at the program from the corporate point of view, itis a model of K Street efficiency: Insurance and drug company lobbyistshire Republicans and fill GOP campaign coffers. In return, they get towrite the legislation to their liking. From this perspective, the drugbenefit is working like a charm.
The drug companies were able to insert a provision that forbids thefederal government to buy drugs in bulk at a negotiated price. And bydividing the purchasing power among hundreds of insurance companies,each with far less clout than the government, they can reap higherprices for their products.