In addition to the byzantine complexity facing seniors trying to get their life sustaining drugs as of January 1, 2006 (All Hail Dear Leader!), the LA Times reports:
Medicare Drug Plan Leaves Out Supplies
# The benefit covers home IV medication but not the implements and care needed to administer it.
Simply unbelievably incompetent.
More...
Many seriously ill people need to administer intravenous antibiotics and other medications at home. In-home treatment is preferred for those who can manage it because it's cheaper and more life affirming than the alternatives (usually nursing homes or hospitals).
Private insurers are very familiar with these cases and generally cover the needed supplies ( IV bags, needles, etc.). Why then are American citizens dealing with this nightmare?
Essentially, the prescription program allows coverage of the drugs but does not pay for the medical supplies and nursing help needed for the home infusion treatments to be safe and effective -- a policy that effectively shuts down such treatment for some patients, even though it is substantially cheaper than the alternatives. Two GOP senators warned the Medicare agency last fall that the gap in coverage "may limit access to home infusion therapy."
http://www.latimes.com/...
So...with American taxpayers on the hook for record deficits and when record expenditures (Katrina & Iraq & Boomer Retirements) are looming, BushCo's prescription drug plan is forcing sick people to either enter nursing homes or be admitted to hospitals to get the care they were receiving IN THEIR HOMES before January 1, 2006 - when Dear Leader showed us all a "better," more expensive way for taxpayers.
Industry experts seem to take this colossal failure as evidence that Dear Leader has his head up the rabbit hole.
Most at-home patients are being treated with antibiotics for serious infections, according to industry statistics. Others are receiving painkillers, and some are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
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"The proof that it (Medicare Part D) isn't sensible is that commercial insurance companies and health maintenance organizations don't do it this way," said Ratner, who is also the medical director for a private company that provides support services for patients receiving intravenous treatments at home.
Worse for the sick people affected:
Specialized pharmacies that handle home infusion will not provide the service unless they are paid.
Some patients discovered their Medicare drug plans did not cover the specific medications they were getting and had to switch insurers. But even when the drugs were covered, things didn't always go smoothly.
The quickest way to alleviate this UNECESSARY suffering and anxiety? Again according to experts:
Some say an obvious solution would be for Congress to step in and craft a comprehensive benefit.
But congressional leaders are loath to make any legislative changes to the drug benefit, fearing that political support for the plan could unravel.
That leaves patients in limbo.
"Congressional" leaders? Doesn't the LA Time know that they are referring to Republican "mis-leaders?" Who outside the traditional media doesn't know that the Medicare Part D debacle is a Republican initiated, engineered, and paid-for disaster?
Spin as they will they can not escape responsibility for this foreseeable, forewarned but now widespread cruelty.