Bush Kills Senior Drug Program

[annabanana]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/06/bush-kills-senior-drug-program/

Wisconsin State Journal:

Gov. Jim Doyle's administration is reviewing how best to maintain prescription drug services to the elderly after the federal government rejected the state's request to extend the popular SeniorCare program, the governor said Wednesday.
Regardless, Doyle said at a news conference that the decision likely kills the program, forcing the 104,000 people on SeniorCare to use the Medicare Part D drug plan.<..>

In an April 3 letter to Doyle, Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the federal government wavier allowing Wisconsin to operate SeniorCare would expire June 30 because state officials had not proven the program was cost-neutral. She said the state's waiver request didn't include information about the assets of program participants, which would help determine if SeniorCare saved taxpayers money

Leslie Norwalk

"loyal b*shy"?

A quick trip to google shows that she has been dicking around in some very basic nuts & bolts of definitions in the medicare and medicaid programs.

http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/teachhosp/corres/2007/031907.pdf
(a letter from Robert M. Dickler,Senior Vice President,Division of Health Care Affairs, The Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington)
Excerpts:
The proposed rule provides neither data nor rationales justifying the restrictions the Agency seeks to impose. We urge CMS to work with Congress to determine whether, and to what extent, policy changes to the Medicaid program are needed.
~snip~
We are concerned that the totality of the changes in the proposed rule, if finalized, would significantly upset the delicate balance of resources that teaching hospitals rely on to fulfill their patient care and other missions.
~snip~
We strongly oppose this budgetary proposal. We also question whether the Administration can implement such a proposal without explicit statutory direction. If the Administration does choose to raise this as a regulatory issue, we believe it would be necessary for CMS to issue a distinct and explicit notice and comment rulemaking process.

[Hidden Stillness]

1. They Killed all the Real Programs, and Replaced it with This Shit

This was a huge part of their goal, to kill all other existing programs, that were actually designed to help people. They killed the Medicaid version of prescription drug coverage, which really did pay almost all of the bill, and they killed special subsidies to drug manufacturers for giving prescriptions to those who could not afford to pay at all. Of course, they are "just so worried" about "sav(ing) taxpayers money"--that was why they stuck in that provision making it ILLEGAL to negotiate lower prices on bulk rates.

I heard this Norwalk asshole on a call-in segment of C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" some months ago, with her grinning, sneering, laughing, refusal-to-answer-questions-and-facts attitude, and her "all the seniors just love the new program, they tell me that every day, although I have no proof and no calls to C-SPAN were favorable" line, and I thought she was one of the stupidest, least informed people I had ever heard in my life, or, to put it another way, a typical member of the Bush-Cheney Administration. She could not even answer the simplest and most ordinary requests for information or explanation, she just stonewalled or grinned the "seniors are so happy" line--which is why she is there.

[rasputin1952]

2. Sounds like this administration...just put a smiling idiot out there...

no answers, just the same dumb stuff.

And people will suffer under this "compssionate conservative" once again...:(

[Benhurst]

3. At last, a victory in the War on Drugs!

What a dump!

[rasputin1952]

4. LOL...The government under bush found out how profitable

dealing drugs is...:D