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Special coverage: Medicare

For her part, Ds for 'dubious'

By SHEILA STOLL
Published October 30, 2005

Nature's complexities are discoverable, orderly and we observe the outcomes. Governmental complexities are not discoverable, thus we feel like idiots when we're confronted with another tax form or a new formula for Medicare, including Part D.

I'm still struggling with Part B. I have no idea what Part C is. I have the feeling I'm being flim-flammed by guys who stand to make a bundle out of all this complexity.

Here's the deal. Pharmaceutical companies hold patents on extremely profitable products. If you're taking any medication, beware of any company that wants to lock you into a program that prohibits you from buying products from its competitors. Don't sign up for something that prevents your getting the best medication available for what ails you.

The pharmaceutical companies are in cahoots with the government to preserve the profits that provide for all that expensive lobbying and advertising.

Why aren't reporters on Capitol Hill screaming about this scam? Where are the Democrats?

If I have to go to the hospital for an unknown illness, will I be able to get the right medication? Or, if I have Parkinson's and have trouble tracking what's going on with my medical care, who will make sure that I get the benefits to which I'm entitled?

Medicare has become more complicated and more expensive virtually every year since its inception. Pharmaceutical companies make huge profits but still whine about the decline in research and development that will result if they lower their prices. Imagine. They might have to struggle to get around another pharmaceutical's patent in order to produce a new Viagra clone.

Many of us have no choice but to sign up for Part D and hope for the best. I bet that neither lobbyists, executives of the pharmaceutical companies or members of Congress will ever be dependent on Medicare. We, however, will have to select from the products on the schedule, the patented ones or generics that may not be as effective or may have a different set of side effects.

My maintenance prescription drugs are all produced in Switzerland. Will there be an option for them or will I have to settle for "equivalents" on the plan?

I once took a generic version of my thyroid replacement drug and nearly died. It contained an animal extract that my body hated. (I don't want the government to save money on me by giving me generics.)

We have huge debts because of the War on Terror, which isn't producing value for money - or blood. It's producing bodies - dead and maimed. I'm not too worried about our honor; I'm more worried about all those bodies. I worry about my body too. It isn't a young one. Things go wrong with it. They're called age. Sometimes I think the Neocons' (neoconservative) objective is to cull the herd: A blasphemously Darwinian notion.

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

[Last modified October 28, 2005, 14:13:52]