In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Bush's Medicare scam
According to Bush and all administration underlings, retired people and others eligible for Medicare are about to get "discounts" on their drug purchases. The price breaks, the president has solemnly assured television cameras, will last between this year and the moment in 2006 when the new law takes full effect. Every person entitled to coverage will be getting a discount card, Bush goes on to note in his standard remarks, and the result of that card will be discounts ranging "from 10 to 25 percent" off the retail price of prescription medicines.
That is the official line.
From the fine print of the law itself, however, it appears to be a lie. When the first batch of regulations under the new law was issued by the Bush administration, the fine print described a system under which "discounts" are a goal, not a requirement. Retired people have a statutory right to "share" in savings that result from bulk purchasing of drugs, but whether that share is puny or substantial is a matter the Republicans and Bush are leaving up to private corporations.
The new legislation gives private firms that will actually run the drug benefits program the business opportunity to distribute these so-called discount cards to beneficiaries. However, any savings in the form of discounts and rebates that these firms are able to achieve in price negotiations with drug manufacturers belong to the private businesses, not to the folks taking the pills.
The idea that these savings off the listed price are passed on to consumers turns out to be something that is encouraged, even favored, but not by any stretch of the law's language required. Instead, whether anything is passed on, and if so how much, is left entirely to the discretion of the businesses that will run the drug benefit.
As Senator Edward M. Kennedy put it after uncovering this latest deception, "Only in this administration would the words Discount Card mean seniors get the card while corporations get the discounts."
- rob 12:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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