Sep 19, 2006 3:56 PM
Primary day has come and gone and we’re now on the fast track to the November 2006 elections — elections that may prove critical to the well-being of America’s seniors.
Health care in our country overall is in abysmal condition with a record-high 46.6 million Americans with no coverage at all while the rest of working America has been squeezed by runaway health-care costs even as employer-provided health-care packages continue to cover fewer health services and workers continue to pay more in deductibles and co-payments.
Of the 35 states reporting premium increases rising at least three times faster than average earnings, three of them — New York, New Jersey and Florida — are home to many of our retirees. We need to get ourselves, our families and our friends to the polls on Election Day, Nov. 7, and make sure we get rid of those members of the House and the Senate who put the profits of the pharmaceutical industry above the health needs of the American people.
Families USA, the national organization for health-care consumers (all of us), a non-profit, non-partisan advocate for “high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans,” has distributed a CD nationwide, narrated by Walter Cronkite, which details the deep flaws of the Part D plan and advocates replacing it with a “very different bill.” It underscores the fact that the plan does not take care of the needs of seniors when each and every year they/we face the doughnut hole.
Families USA calls for a very different bill that would:
1. Provide a drug plan through Medicare.
2. Allow Medicare to negotiate deep discounts in drug costs.
3. Use the savings to close the doughnut hole.
Those are exactly the changes we’ve been calling for since the bill was rammed through Congress.
Why should we be paying $1,323 for Plavix when the Veterans’ Administration has been able to negotiate a $989 price? The VA gets Fosamax for $516 while Part D’s lowest price is $728. For Protonin, we pay $1,111, while the VA pays $253.
The CD also describes the revolving door through which so many of the drafters of the onerous Part D plan have passed to become today’s pharmaceutical lobbyists.
How do we get the “different bill” that we so drastically need?
“Only Congress can make the change,” Cronkite tells listeners.
So here we are. It’s up to us to make it happen. We must get to the polls. We must add our voices and votes to those of other advocates. We must make sure we are represented by legislators who will support that change.
Cronkite concludes, “Seniors have waited a long time for a simple and affordable drug plan.” Now it’s up to us whether the waiting is over.
You can find out more about Families at www.familiesusa.org.
In my next column, we will take a look at some of the candidates running for office. That should provide you with more ammunition to convince others about the serious impact this election will have on all of us.