Some on Medicare May Have to Start Paying (safeguard ends today)

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- A safeguard designed to ease elderly patients' transition into the Medicare drug program ended Friday, and that means some people will find they have to pay for their medicine out-of-pocket.

The government had told insurers they must cover a 90-day supply of a drug, even if that drug is not on the plan's list. Beginning Saturday, they won't have to.
.....
In a letter to President Bush, 10 Democratic senators said neither CMS nor the insurers have educated seniors about their options April 1. They asked the president to extend the transition period.

"We're very concerned that many elderly and disabled citizens will not be able to obtain the drugs they desperately need if the transition policy ends," the senators wrote.
.....
However, Tim Tucker, a pharmacist from Huntingdon, Tenn., said he sees several patients an hour whose insurance won't cover a drug now that the transition period has ended. Often, those customers had no idea until he tells them. He said that he saw no warning letters from insurers until just recently.

"I'm real concerned about what's going to happen on April 1," he said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-medicare-drugs,0,6093014.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[aquart]

1. What will happen? Americans will die. Republicans will lie.

[AnneD]

2. On any given day...

the shit will hit the fan. A good day is when you have a few seconds warning. Today was not a good day for our seniors.