A huge price to pay for a drug discount

I'm not sure I have this right. I think the government is eager to give seniors prescription drug relief. I think its solution is to dump us into the private sector, to put us all in "managed care" so that for-profit companies can negotiate a deal with the pharmaceutical companies to provide us with a discount. It sounds to me like a way to pry us out of the Medicare system with a bribe.

I worked hard all my life knowing that Medicare would take care of my health needs during my declining years. I paid for it, just as I paid for Social Security, which would provide me with an income during those same years. But now I'm being told to forget about that entitlement.

I don't know what these young bureaucrats see as fair. I don't know why they think I'm willing to be managed at this stage of my life. Apparently they haven't heard about the doctors who are bailing out of managed care companies. They also don't know how many health care managers have bailed out of states with large senior populations.

They have a lot of faith in the private sector. They aren't old enough to know how the private sector rejected the senior sector, leaving many of us helpless after years of working and believing in our government and its wisdom. That's exactly why we have Medicare. U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper knew. He was our voice in Congress. But he's gone.

We have no voice now. We're valuable only as a voting bloc, and we're being managed by political pros. These are people with an agenda.

Privatization. Cut entitlements. Give more breaks to the entrepreneurs, the investors who can jump-start the economy. Beef up the military so we can focus Americans on threats abroad. Why worry about our dying grandparents when we're at war?

I have a problem with this whole thing. I also have a problem with taking money out of entitlements while giving money to faith-based charities, which are supposed to take care of us. If we're not Christians, too bad; we get the evangelizing with the soup. What are we supposed to do?

Are we supposed to jump out of Medicare in order to get the medications that best treat our ailments and let the slack be taken up by evangelists who give us scripture with our meals on wheels? Why should these guys get the money that would otherwise go to Medicare?

I foolishly thought that Medicare and Medicaid were our right. It didn't occur to me that an administration would place a "pre-emptive war" above our entitlements. I'm pretty sure that I'm not threatened by any Iraqi. Unfortunately, they can't say the same about me and my countrymen. I'm a major threat to them. They probably have no idea that I am being shopped out to "managers" so my government can afford to bomb them.

"They are not bound by the Hypocritic Oath" said my Swiss husband, referring to the managers. (His English is still a little strange.)

I say they are bound by the "Hypocritic Oath," but they are not bound by the Hippocratic oath. There's the rub.

Why can't I just go to my doctor, get the best medicine for what ails me, have my pharmacist fill the prescription at a price I can afford with my Medicare discount? I don't want to go to Canada or Mexico to buy drugs like a criminal.

We have to find and elect an advocate, someone like Claude Pepper. Without a strong, powerful voice in Congress, we are doomed. A scary thing is happening. It threatens us. We cannot be complacent, unless we're willing to just roll over and die. I am screamingly unwilling!

- Write to Sheila Stoll, c/o Seniority, the St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright