A Hole for Seniors, Cream for the Drug Companies
By: Greg Kane
Published On: 9/5/2006 11:24:12 PM
It has been reported recently that there is a gap designed into the Medicare prescription drug plan that is leaving seniors scrambling to find the money they need for essential medicine.
This gap in the plan is being called a +óGé¼+ôdoughnut hole+óGé¼-¥. To be sure, this new plan, largely designed buy the Republican controlled Congress is complex. It is so complex that few seniors have been able to plow through the reams of paperwork required to understand the options and pitfalls without professional help. This plan could only have been designed by people who never had to depend upon it.
When asked about this +óGé¼+ôDoughnut hole+óGé¼-¥, Congressman Virgil Goode (who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee) said, +óGé¼+ôIt was known when it was passed that the doughnut hole was there. It was publicized.+óGé¼-¥ When Mr. Goode was asked what he intended to do to help Seniors that now find themselves in trouble, he said if folks write him a letter he will pass the comments on to the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives.
Mr. Goode has been telling his constituents for years that they should feel lucky he has such a powerful position on Appropriations with the majority party. Mr. Goode should be promising some active arm twisting to stand up for our Seniors. Instead, he+óGé¼Gäóll just forward our mail.
The +óGé¼+ôdoughnut+óGé¼-¥ that the Pharmaceutical industry was given has no hole. In fact, this is a cream-filled doughnut. The Republican leadership, with no objection from Mr. Goode, prohibited the government from negotiating with the drug companies to lower the costs.
Al Weed, Mr. Goode+óGé¼Gäós Democratic opponent said in response +óGé¼+ôI am disappointed that Mr. Goode has attempted to shrug off responsibility by saying Medicare Part D problems were advertised. If they knew the donut hole existed, why didn+óGé¼Gäót they fix it?"
The answer to Al Weed is that somebody had to get the hole, and in this Congress it was not going to be the drug companies. Mr. Goode's limp-wristed support of Seniors and his acquiescence to the pharmaceutical industry receiving the cream while he has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the same industry makes Mr. Goode's motivations suspect. We've seen Mr. Goode dance to the corporate campaign contribution tune before.
Current projections are that the House of Representatives will go Democratic in November by a comfortable margin. If the best Mr. Goode can do now is forward our mail, what will he be willing or capable of doing in the minority? Al Weed says he wants to go to bat for Seniors. As a Democrat he would be in the majority. Lets give him, and our Seniors that chance.
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