Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In 2006, the bill went into effect. It was a disaster. Computer systems didn't communicate with one another. Seniors were confused. Some of the poorest and sickest enrollees -- "dual eligibles" who qualify for aid under both Medicare and Medicaid -- weren't able to get their drugs. It was so bad that in his 2006 State of the Union address, Bush "said nothing about the new Medicare prescription drug program, an initiative Republicans once hoped to trumpet but has angered many seniors in its implementation," reported the Washington Post.
Democrats at all levels helped save Bush's signature health care achievement from its disastrous roll-out. As then-Senator Hillary Clinton reasoned in 2006:
"I voted against it, but once it passed I certainly determined that I would try to do everything I could to make sure that New Yorkers understood it, could access it, and make the best of it."
When Wisconsin Senator Kohl, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Aging asked his colleagues "to put aside any partisan thoughts to work together to get this program running," Democratic governors were already spending billions of dollars to help out.
Really? No comments from those on the right as to the blatant politicizing of The ACA as opposed to helping to make it work? Maybe these circus-like hearings will actually have the Teapublicans inadvertantly helping to get the kinks worked out of the technical issues...the operative word her being "inadvertantly". Mean spirited SOB's.
Valid point. Unfortunately, the right in this country is governed by the dumbest and most childish among us, so don't hold your breath looking for that kind of maturity.
How many years after the Medicare drug bill passed did they have to set up the system?
Did they have three years?
Your point is moot. The fact is that Bush's Medicare Part D was a wet kiss to the pharmaceutical industry and Democrats were against it with good reason, BUT to accommodate the people that relied on Rx drugs, they got on board to improve the program and how people got enrolled. That is the point!
As the Washington Post reported in January 2006, "Two weeks into the new Medicare prescription drug program, many of the nation's sickest and poorest elderly and disabled people are being turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting more than a dozen states to declare health emergencies and pay for their life-saving medicines." Roughly 6.4 million seniors who just days earlier had gotten their prescriptions for free faced the prospect of going without because of untrained pharmacists and computer glitches. By January 16th, 2006, the New York Times reported, many states (most of them led by Democrats) came to their rescue.
Last edited by sickofnyc; 10-25-2013 at 04:46 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
