What's with Novak? I never paid too much attention to him in the past, but now he's become the crazy aunt in the attic.

All the teachers hate Bush, but they've always hated Bush and nothing he did would change that. Like Orrin said yesterday if Bush started healing lepers, they'd come out in favor of leprosy.
Didn't John Kerry vote to pass NCLB?

These statements about the complexity of choosing the Medicare drug plan are just flat lies.

Go to www.medicare.gov, input the drugs the senior you are concerned about takes, and it flat tells you the exact out of pocket cost under every plan available in your area. For those who are math impaired, it ranks them from lowest out of pocket cost to highest out of pocket cost.

I hve done this for my mother, and an aunt. In my mother's case, she will reach the notorius hole in the doughnut, so I checked to see what she would be paying when she had to pay 100% of her drug costs for a period. Guess what? She will pay at least 25%, and in some cases almost 40%, off the retail price of the drugs because she gets the discounted price negotiated by the insurance company while she is in the doughnut. Our pharmicist szys this is true for virtually all progrsms tht he is seeing. So, the statement that the Feds can't negotite with the pharma companies is true but misleading-- the insurance companies
can and have done so.

Call me crazy, but I believe NCLB was not for the teachers but for the students and their parents.

Bryan:

Democrats acknowledged, shortly afterwards, that they'd not understood that the voucher provision was a disaster for them.

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/1285/

So, what, this is another case of the Stupidest Person Alive pulling the long con on the Smart Party? I'm starting to think he might not be that dumb.

Dan,
Thanks for the advice in your comments. Am passing them along to those who I think need some help with this.

It was the first case.

These statements about the complexity of choosing the Medicare drug plan are just flat lies.

Go to www.medicare.gov, input the drugs the senior you are concerned about takes...

Already, the plan is too complicated, as it takes a second person, other than the recipient, to "go to www.medicare.gov" Although the commenter (as well as myself) have a senior relative that is fortunate enough to have saintly people like the commenter (and myself) to negotiate through the program, that doesn't make it easy or simple.

Thank God the TV campaign was unclear, elsewise my dear sweet 88-year-old mother would have expired (or exploded) from worry. Just from the worry!

PS: I do not want to live in a world where "a myriad of" is acceptable usage in the NYT.

Brian,

If my aunt and my mother had internet access, they could easily have done what I did. All-- ALL-- that is required is the ability to type in the names of the drugs you take and the dosage. COULD NOT be simpler.

Dan,

An old saying comes to mind (which will not be spun out in detail here, out of respect for Mr. Judd's ground rules regarding language and decorum), but it mentions a fictional aunt and it speculates on how her nature would change if she had different "equipment."

I cannot imagine a bigger disaster than my mother with internet access. Good on ya, if your aunt or mother still has enough of her faculties to use the WWW.

But many of the folks who might avail themselves of the new system are, we would all do well to recall, on medication-- or on multiple medications-- and, in many cases, infirm.

In my case, my mum is also in the NJ PAAD program and, as such, she doesn't need to do anything to continue enjoying low-priced drugs. When recently she was knocked off the program (a tax snafu), the paperwork required to get her back on was headache-inducing (and far more than she could handle herself). I shuddered at the possibility that she might have had to deal with the feds. Thankfully for us all, she didn't.

I do believe you that the program might be simple. Hmmm... now all we must do is examine the motives of all those who portrayed it as horribly complicated.

I did the comparison as well and found there was little difference in the costs among the plans.

My husband takes quite a few drugs and we found his annual cost with the plan is just a couple of hundred bucks less than his costs without the plan. The big benefit is the catastrophic option that kicks in if the annual cost goes above $2,250.00.

Brian,

My mom is 85, and my Aunt is 83, and they have both used the internet in the past, though just for email.

The mailings that went out last fall were absurd, they raised all sorts of questions and gave no answers that would fit any paricular person. The web site was no different until late November. Now, it is fantastic. It does seem to be a well kept secret, though.

I think most of those denigrating the program simply suffer from BDS, and would rather have senior citizens pay more for drugs than think even a little favorably about Bush.

And, erp, for my mother there really wasn't a huge savings, but for my aunt it was more significant. Still, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, which is what the critics make it sound like.

Brian:

Yes, if old people are left alone in the dark, like the French, then they're beyond the help of such a program.