The complicated Medicare prescription drug benefit program
that the Republicans pushed thru so nephariously on November
22nd of last year is very confusing as it is, it does not
even fully kick in until 2006, and it will not even lower
the price of drugs. It is basically a multi-billion dollar
tax-payer supported subsidy to the already rich HMO
companies and to the already rich pharmaceutical companies.
It is designed to help them, and at the same time, it is
designed to ultimately screw senior citizens so they will be
left without a Medicare program to speak of eventually.
This Medicare drug bill is, in due time, designed to lure
seniors completely out of the Medicare program altogether
and into private HMO programs, so that Medicare's door will
be shut closed on them later on, in a way that they will not
be able to come back to it. And then when they are stuck in
the HMO program, the government subsidy will then be
eliminated, resulting in them being evicted from the
insurance program if they don't pay increased costs.
This is a bill that was designed by a bunch of extremist
Republicans who actually hate elderly people, and they hate
Medicare. Some of them will probably respond to this post
and call Medicare a "socialist" program, as if socialism is
a deragatory word.
Are these people who we should trust to tinker around with
the cherished and vital Medicare program & with the health
of our elderly citizens?
To top things off, the Republican leadership had apparently
and illegally offered Republican Congressman Nick Smith
hefty bribes to vote for this bill. The House ethics
committee and the FBI have launched an investigation into
this bribery. Furthermore, it seems that Richard Foster (the
main cost analyst for Medicare) was threatened by Thomas
Scully (the main Medicare administrator). Thomas Scully
threatened to fire Richard Foster last June if he told
Congress the real cost of the Medicare drug bill. As it
turns out the real cost of the Medicare drug bill which the
Republicans pushed thru in the middle of the night so
forcefully will end up costing us hundreds of billions of
dollars more than they said it will cost. The real cost was
not revealed until AFTER the vote on the bill.
Republicans and Democrats alike would not have voted in
favor of the bill if they would have known the truth, the
real cost. But it gets worse, this bill is a bad bill that
does not do much of any good at all anyways, as expensive as
it is. Families USA, a public advocacy group, will hold town-
hall meetings with seniors in over 22 cities over the next
11 weeks to point out the flaws in the program. For more
info, go to this link:
familiesusa.orgfamiliesusa.orgOpen ↗
Abel Malcolm
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Educate yourself & go to these links:
moveon.orgmoveon.orgOpen ↗ & salon.comsalon.comOpen ↗ &
buzzflash.combuzzflash.comOpen ↗ & democrats.orgdemocrats.orgOpen ↗ &
commondreams.orgcommondreams.orgOpen ↗ & bushwatch.combushwatch.comOpen ↗ &
academycomputerservice.comcharts.htmOpen ↗ &
earth.prohosting.comjobcreation.jpgOpen ↗ & http-
://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp_moveon/prin-
t.html & glocom.org20040301 tsuOpen ↗
rumi_president/