Overheard at the local pharmacy: "It's all George Bush's fault"

[PA Democrat]

I had to get a prescription filled for a sick child today and what normally is a 15 minute wait extended to more than an hour apparently due to the mess created by the new Medicare prescription drug plan.

A number of older people were clearly upset when they were told the cost of their prescriptions and the people at the pharmacy seemed just as upset and were repeatedly apologizing. I guess that the state is stepping in to help, but there is some type of additional approval process that the pharmacist has to go through which takes several minutes, tying up the line.

A couple in front of me in line was getting a prescription for an elderly parent, and I heard the woman say, "My mom's prescription used to cost only $20 under PACE (Pennsylvania's drug plan for low income seniors) and now you're telling me she has to pay $74 under the Medicare plan?"

The pharmacy clerk apologized and the woman said loudly, "I'm sorry, I KNOW it's not your fault, it's George Bush's fault." She went on to say that the only people being helped were the pharmaceutical companies and Bush's rich friends while old people would die because they can't afford their drugs.

I added, "People need to remember this when they vote this November. Remember whose plan this was." Several people nodded their heads. No one dared to speak up in Bush's defense. And this is in a county that voted for Bush in 2004.

Anyone else seeing this same scene at their local pharmacy?

[movonne]

1. What a rip off...

[jsamuel]

2. sad

but you handled it well :thumbsup:






:cry:

[PA Democrat]

8. You know, the whole process is just humiliating to people

Everyone waiting in that line saw the distress on people's faces when they were given a price for their medication that was obviously beyond their means.

[FreedomAngel82]

3. That sucks

I'm glad people are realizing what's going on and I hope they vote in November. I don't go to the pharmacy because I get my medicine in the mail so I can't say.

[Joanne98]

4. I waited 2 hours for a refill I paid CASH for. It's a DISASTER!

K&R.......

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Let's pray that your personal experience

is being replicated in 1000's of pharmacies from coast to coast. Perhaps these poor misinformed people will begin to put 2 & 2 together--in spite of BushCo's attempts to cloud the issue with terra' references and other obfuscation. SG

Edit: Want to specify that I don't wish for their suffering, but only for them to wake up to reality. SG

[bunkerbuster1]

38. Thanks for the edit

I was gonna say, um...

[roguevalley]

52. I don't know a senior that voted for bush. this is happening in 1000's

of pharmacies. 13 states have had to step in. there goes their budgets.

[marions ghost]

61. Does anyone know

which states are providing some kind of assistance to cover this outrageous hike in costs?

[PA Democrat]

62. Pennsylvania is providing a 5 day supply of meds

Article linked below says that 10 other states are currently doing this. I guess that the states are concerned that the federal government is going to stick them with the cost and state budgets are already in desperate shape in many cases..

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06017/639176.stm

[Bozita]

6. Seniors seen sitting and waiting ... in numbers not seen earlier

Disgraceful!

[adigal]

70. Our elderly are going to DIE waiting for their

medications. And it will get no attention.

[louis-t]

7. Folks are beginning to wake up from a long sleep.

* is a liar. Medicare plan was also supposed to cost $395 billion (a lie) and the actuary who knew the real number was threatened with losing his job if he told the truth.

[Raster]

79. and the only winners are big pharma. The "new and improved"

Medicare plan is corporate welfare on the backs of the people in its ugliest incarnation, on the backs of the elderly and infirm.

Here's my plan: First, roll back Medicare to the exact status of two years ago, changing the program specs to allow the program to negotiate prices up front with big pharma. This would drastically lower the cost of most prescriptions, passing the savings to the patient. bush*'s Medicare plan specifically makes it illegal to negotiate, leaving the pricing advantage squarely in the hands of big pharma. And it is no coincidence that big pharma donated more money to the rethuglican and bush* money machine than any other industry during the 2004 election cycle. Big pharma bought and paid for this piece of shit bill with your grandma's financial security.

[Kurovski]

9. It was a boondoggle from the start.

Huge amounts of tax money will be wasted on costs not related to actual prescriptions and most likely--fraud.

How can we doubt it given the track record of all BushCo. operations?

[Hissyspit]

11. Everything Bushco does is a scam. n/t

[Lorien]

10. Not at a pharmacy, but with some of my clients

who are all part of a large corporation that depends on disposable income from the middle class to prosper. There's been layoffs and downsizing aplenty there for the past four years. I called someone at this corporation who I hadn't talked to in six years, and when I asked how it was going, he went down a whole list of woes, ending with "I blame it all on George W. Bush. Seriously! Could this country be any more fucked up"?

I didn't know his politics before that moment, and he didn't know mine. I think people are finally getting pissed off enough to end their self censorship!

[dogday]

12. CNN doing a story on it now

it is a clusterf**k of a situation...

[Bethany Rockafella]

13. They should suck it up!

As long as Gays aren't allowed to marry!

:sarcasm:

[SammyWinstonJack]

76. .

:evilgrin:

[stevietheman]

83. Yeah, and as a gay, I'm still waiting for evidence for damage to...

tradtional marriage by the idea of same-sex marriage. The religious reich-wingers, of course, cannot produce such evidence.

[One_of_8]

14. My parents experience

My parents have Senior Advantage through Kaiser (in California). They are supposed to be able to opt in or out of this new Medicare prescription program, but somehow, a deal apparently was made between Kaiser and the feds whereby all Senior Advantage members are automatically enrolled in the new Medicare prescription plan, resulting in much higher cost for their prescriptions. The choice to enroll or not was taken from them. Kaiser is usually a fairly decent HMO, and hopefully this will get straightened out. Fortunately, my parents can afford the increase for their prescriptions, but they are the exception and it still doesn't make it okay.

[Nikki Stone1]

15. It's good that the clerk put the blame where it belongs.

If enough older people hate their drug coverage, maybe they will vote against these bandits in the White House.

[gordianot]

16. No guaruntee that some will be able to make a simple connection.

George Bush represents the Republican agenda.
The Republican agenda does not include the welfare of most Americans outside of the wealthy.
Your Congressman who is a Republican follows the Republican agenda (the rare Republican who does not is a RINO).

[SharonAnn]

43. He represents the "corporate profiteering" agenda.

[gordianot]

69. "Caveat Emptor"

[wishlist]

17. I hope people remember when Bush & Co try to revive Social Sec "fix"

Anything this bunch running the country does gets screwed up due to their incompetence. No surprise to me that abruptly shutting down large scale successful state run programs and turning coverage over to private insurance companies would cause problems.

[hedgehog]

18. Kick it and keep on kicking it!

This is going on all over the country!

People finding out they have no coverage, people finding out they have coverage but that they have to go to a pharmacy 20 miles away, people finding out that they have to pay double, people finding out that they can't get the same prescriptions etc. etc. etc. This is happening right in people's faces, not on the TV news in another country. We need to pin this right where it belongs, on George and the Republican Congress.

[chat_noir]

19. Scotty's brother chimes in on PBS interview

SUSAN DENTZER: McClellan says the glitches appear to affect fewer than 5 percent of enrollees. He says they stem from the challenges of transmitting data among computer systems of the government, private drug plans, other information processors and pharmacies.

Most of the people affected are in a group of roughly six and a half million poor elderly or disabled beneficiaries who are on both Medicare and Medicaid. Many are in nursing homes or battling serious chronic diseases, dementia or mental illness.

For years these so-called "dual eligibles" had their drug bills paid for by the states under Medicaid. But with Medicare now taking over their drug coverage, the government took steps last year to make the transition as seamless as possible.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/medicare/jan-june06/medicare_1-16.html


The poor? I'm shocked. :sarcasm:

[PA Democrat]

44. Wow. The people most likely to be affected are the very ones

who are also least likely to be able to fight it. I'm shocked, I tell you.:sarcasm:

[roguevalley]

53. he's so full of shit. its affecting everyone. the nursing homes are

going under over this. its a horrible fiasco and they KNEW IT WOULD BE, THE NAZI FUCKERS!

[AllegroRondo]

20. Sounds like a great ad for Moveon.org

they should run a series of ads along those lines this fall.

[AspenRose]

25. AND the AARP. AND the Grey Panthers.

They need to get medieval on Bunnypants.

[SammyWinstonJack]

77. Didn't AARP support this in the beginning?

[PA Democrat]

81. Yes. The AARP is also in the business of selling insurance

and could not resist the temptation of profits to be reaped off the backs of the very people they are supposed to represent. A lot of people canceled their membership over the AARP's support for Bush's Medicare drug plan.

[stevietheman]

84. I still remember when seniors "went medieval" over the...

catastrophic health care insurance changes several years back. They have a history with this "medieval" thing. Heh.

[firefox]

21. Taking a tangent thought

There is one figure I am looking for out of all the statistics that exist and that is the US pharmaceutical sales in 2005. It is a well kept secret if you ask me.

There is a big development coming when Zucor, a statin drug for cholesterol, loses its patented status in June- http://tinyurl.com/9vqkl

It is the expiring of the patent that is so interesting. It is what we will learn after the patent expires. Lipitor is the biggest selling pill in the world and it will be interesting to see what a generic statin does to its sales and if a generic statin will lower the price of Lipitor and of course it will be most interesting to see what a generic identical to Zucor does to Zucor sales.

But the thing I wonder most is if the generic is in the pipeline already or is there some political situation that prevents the generic from hitting the market as soon as the patent expires. You would think China and India both would want to make a statin for their own markets and you would think they would want to export it too.

I hate to go all tangent on you, but I thought it was important to mention.

[FlaGranny]

40. Other drug companies have

applied for extensions of their patentsin the past, and they have been granted.

[methinks2]

22. more of us should be making these

comments as often as possible. Glad to hear americans are waking up!

[AuntiBush]

23. It's EVERYWHERE!

The laundry list of where I hear "It's that damn Bush's fault on __________ (just fill-in the blank)!"

1. In store lines (type of stores): Furniture, Books, Food, Carry-outs, Pharmacies, Pets, Vets, Dr.'s offices, Dental, College, you name it.
2. Neighbors: At least 3 counties from friends, family & acquaintances.
3. All Delivery people.
4. Post offices and delivers.
5. Repairmen from Plumbers, Electricians, etc.

Age Groups: Elderly, Teens, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50', and 60's, 70's, and even 80's, and 90's.

Religion: All denominations and some.

Creed, Race and Gender: There is no way one can point them out. People are eager to talk about it.

And the one of many things on everyone's lips are "how could they do this to our elderly, our disabled, our poor." Followed by, "worse Prez, adm, and GOP ever!"

[PA Democrat]

24. I am glad to hear that people are waking up

I just hate that it is at the expense of some of our most vulnerable citizens. It's sad to see the elderly and the poor being publicly humiliated to finally shame some Americans into paying attention.

[AuntiBush]

27. Where I live Folks Have Been Awake for Quite Sometime

Quite frankly, these variant-types of folks have been awake long before I got wind of it. Had a tragedy not occurred in my life, I would have awoken soon.

No. The people I bang into are fed-up. What amazes me is how much they want to talk about it without a word from me. They just need to vent badly.

What more do our Dem's up there need to hear? Don't they read DU? Hope so.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. A group of us talked in whispers too and reached the same conclusion.

I was standing at the post office one Saturday morning waiting for it to open, not knowing that they opened late on Saturdays. A line started to build behind me and I can't remember what the subject was, but it was before this whole Fitzgerald-Rove thing exploded. We talked about something that was current that week. Someone made a comment, then another. Before we knew it, we were all agreeing that the Bush Administration was corrupt and the elections looked suspicious.

The thing that most impressed me was how we were whispering and looking around as if we feared someone would show up to take down our names. I mean, this is America, isn't it? I finally ended the conversation saying, well maybe we better change the subject before they figure out we can think for ourselves. Everybody gave a knowing smile, then dummied up for the cameras.

[McCamy Taylor]

28. GOP is going to suffer on this one. AARP voters remember.

[libnnc]

33. yep. dumbest. move. ever.

[AzDar]

29. Yep, my husband had to pick up a prescription last night. It took

30 extra minutes; they had to re-do all his info,re-confirm insurance carrier. My hubby asked the Pharmacist WHY, since we are privately insured, and the pharmacist said that since Jan. 1, his life has been a total nightmare..computers crashing;people (presumably on Medicare) not being able to get their meds at ALL; some having to wait in the pharmacy for 2-3 hours while he tried to get red-tape situations sorted out. My hubby said "Glad I didn't vote for the bastards", and the pharmacist just nodded grimly.
Another Bush-created disaster for Americans to deal with.

[0007]

30. Is this the donut hole affect they talked about on the senate floor?

[PA Democrat]

32. Sounds more like black hole

sucking in all of our tax dollars without a shred of light escaping.

But aren't black holes the result of the death of a star? Hmmm.... Maybe this black hole drug plan is the result of the implosion of the GOP death star.

[0007]

41. .....and the cost of this was around 450 billion or more, eh?

I forget, cuz I didn't have enough to pay for my meds. The old folks will soon be seen standing on street corners with signs that sez, "Will work for drugs"

[Rainscents]

58. That's what we thought at first (Republican lied)...

The actual number was 650 billion!!!

[SharonAnn]

45. No, that comes later. High deductibles now, then no coverage

later. Then coverage once the amount becomes catastrophic.

Lots of people will get into the "donut hole". They think deductibles are bad now, wait till they see what happens in the "donut hole".

[0007]

55. I just found an old med, and my God your right, I forgot what

Barbara Boxer was trying to tell America and all the numb nuts that voted for junior.

Thank you for jogging my poor old worn out memory.

[roguevalley]

54. no. that's coming. will make this look like disneyland. :(

[0007]

56. Argh.....now I'm indeed getting pissed off.

[blue neen]

31. How many seniors will die because they now can't afford their meds?

It's scary and sad.

I'm glad that you spoke up. :thumbsup:

[DiverDave]

34. I started delivering to the CVS stores

in my area, and the one manager I spoke with today said it was a holy mess in the pharmacy, I said it was bushes fault, he just nodded his head.

[wicket]

35. To paraphrase Kanye West:

"George Bush doesn't care about poor people".

[bunkerbuster1]

39. George Bush doesn't care about old people.

He pretty much doesn't care about anyone who can't shovel $$$ into his fat coffers.

[neverforget]

36. The Dems should run an ad connecting the corruption scandals happening

now and how the Repukes held the vote open against the rules to get this turd of a Medicare bill through the House. This is what you get when people who hate government run government: a total fucking nightmare.

[SharonAnn]

46. It's what you get when corporations run government.

[Bozita]

78. Mussolini coined a word for that -- FASCISM

[Rainscents]

37. I truly believe, this is what, going to take people to wake up

Remember... freepers have old parents too and when they experience this with their parents, they're going to turn on their own party too!

Remember... Delay fucking hold out 15 minute vote that lasted over an hour until he got vote he wanted! This is fucking criminal!!!

[SharonAnn]

47. He held it open for almost 3 hours, if I remember correctly.

[Rainscents]

49. Thank you for the correction.

I knew it was more than an hour.

[blue neen]

63. Our Democratic candidates for Congress need to remind everyone

of this fact in their campaigns this year. Senior citizens AND their children AND their grandchildren need to know who is ripping them off.

REPUBLICANS SCREWED WITH THEIR MEDICARE!

[underpants]

42. As I said from the beginning-This not the crowd to try to trick

Especially with your wordsmithing that purposely convolutes what your policy actually does. They watch every penny and they know what was promised and now see what they are getting.

Google- Richard Foster medicaid Scully

[baldguy]

48. Why isn't there just ONE drug plan under Medicaid, instead of 35?

Because Big Pharma wrote the bill to MAXIMIZE their own profits at the expense of PEOPLES' LIVES.

[PA Democrat]

50. Many states are footing the bill to make sure that Medicare recipients

don't DIE while the mess gets straightened out. Good to see that there are some state politicians who actually PRACTICE "Christianity" as opposed the disgusting hypocrites who created this mess and let vulnerable people suffer.

Pennsylvania is covering the cost of a 5 day supply of medications for people who are having problems with Bush's Medicare plan.

With Pennsylvania Medicaid recipients still struggling to obtain their new Medicare prescription drug benefits, officials said yesterday that the state would expand efforts to help low-income residents get their medications.

Gov. Ed Rendell announced that Pennsylvania will cover the cost for a five-day supply of medicines for Medicaid recipients who experience troubles at pharmacies because their drug benefits were switched to Medicare on Jan. 1.

With the new effort, the state is prepared to spend up to $10 million to help Medicaid recipients who are caught in a variety of glitches in the new federal program, and possibly going home without medication as a result.

Just last week, Pennsylvania joined more than 10 states that have taken steps to ensure that Medicaid patients can continue to receive their medications. But state officials said yesterday that the earlier effort, which involved spending as much as $2 million to cover the cost of high co-pays unfairly charged to some patients, was not enough to resolve the range of problems people are experiencing.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06017/639176.stm

[roguevalley]

51. happened to my mom. the whole crowd agreed with her. Mom's

74 and she will say it anywhere to anyone. GO MOM!

[jburton]

57. My pharmacy now has overnight wait for CASH orders

Noticed this over the weekend. ALL refill orders have to be left overnight because they are just so damn busy. So this is impacting everybody, not just Medicare recipients.

[Jokinomx]

59. I just hope that the Seniors remember this......

Fiasco after fiasco... this administration has not did ONE thing that has worked or made life better anyone other than his "base". (See F-911)

[Generic Other]

60. I heard an old lady in a wheelchair go ballistic at Walgreen's

She was screaming bloody murder about needing her drugs. I thought she was going to get arrested. I guess she didn't like Bush's plan so much either.

[Nikki Stone 1]

64. If only we could harnass this energy!

We'd win in 2008

[MountainLaurel]

73. This explains

Why my normally friendly pharmacist was in such a pissy mood last week -- I hadn't made the connection to the Medicare fiasco. Duh! I figured it just had to do with the return of students after the winter break (the store is located within a couple miles of three universities).

[NMMNG]

65. I just don't have the words

So I'll say it in smileys.
:mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr::mad::grr:

[yellowdogmi]

66. His real solution for social security

The pharmacy clerk apologized and the woman said loudly, "I'm sorry, I KNOW it's not your fault, it's George Bush's fault." She went on to say that the only people being helped were the pharmaceutical companies and Bush's rich friends while old people would die because they can't afford their drugs.

*thinks If they are dead we don't have to pay them benefits. Heh heh.
:mad:

[CAG]

67. MSM has pointed out that cheney's feisty toddler "ordered" insurance

companies to supply the meds with little copay to the poor, yet I haven't heard a single MSM point out that 1) sounds like he's asking for someone to bail him out of his mess and 2) who do you think will pay for this - us with even higher hikes in our insurance premiums to make up for all the money the insurance companies are going to have to dole out to Pfizer/GSK/Merck/Lilly/etc....

The repubs, of course, will note that while your health insurance premiums go up another 600 bucks or so next year, at least your taxes won't go up more than 3 cents (since, you know, we don't need to pay for any of this; we just charge it to our BANK OF CHINA federal credit card).

[Lugnut]

68. My mother has a PACE card

PACE sent her a letter stating she had better coverage with PACE than any alternative plans offered in PA. She didn't have to sign up for the Medicare prescription plan and will not be penalized if she chooses to later on, which she won't. Her co-pay is $6 for generics and $9 for brand names.

I don't understand why those people even signed up for the Medicare plan unless they didn't understand that they weren't required to. This is the problem. This boondoggle is impossible to understand and is the biggest bad joke ever played on Medicare recipients.

[yardwork]

71. It's important to speak up!

If we don't speak up now, it will become illegal to say anything critical about the government in public.

Why do we think it won't happen here? Fascism takes over countries all the time. The US is not immune.

We must speak up!

[IndyOp]

72. The US elected Kerry 11/04; if no election reform votes don't count 11/06

"People need to remember this when they vote this November." - Okay, but IT WILL NOT MATTER who people cast their votes for if the GOP controls the voting.

So...do something about election fraud/reform! Call Congress, go to a local Dem meeting and speak out!

:kick:

[rman]

74. Dems will only bring us a kinder, gentler corporate healh care.

Today no policiical party of any significance exsists that supports the people's will for universal healthcare.

[raccoon]

80. You got that right. nt

[foreverdem]

75. And only certain drugs are covered

With some of these plans, only the most popular drug given is covered. My mom has alzheimers and has had some terrible reactions to the common meds given, one time so bad she ended up in the ER. My brother has to get a letter from her doctor stating that my mom can only tolerate the drug she is on now, which is not covered, and the plan will then decide if they will cover it for her.

[in_cog_ni_to]

82. THIS should finish off the repuke party!

We all watched how they shoved this piece of SHIT legislation through the House. THE REPUKE PARTY WILL PAY...BIG TIME FOR THIS DISASTROUS bill! Not only are the Seniors affected by this, their CHILDREN who help them pay for their medicine will be pissed as hell...just like the lady at your pharmacy.

People will NOT forget this at election time....the pocketbook suffers? So will the repuke party and deservedly so!

add to this the high heating bills, the high prices at the gas pump, higher groceries, higher health care costs and higher insurance premiums...and the repuke party is FINISHED.

PLUS all the damn scandals!:rofl: