Falling In

Earlier this year I jokingly referred to Medicare Part D as the springtime drug benefit. Well, Spring is well past sprung and Jose M Flores has fallen into the donut hole in Medicare Part D's coverage. From The NY Times:

Jose M. Flores, a Medicare beneficiary who lives outside McAllen, used the new drug benefit four times from January to April to purchase Byetta, an injectable medicine for diabetes. Each time he paid $40.

So when he went to the pharmacy on May 25, he was dismayed to be told that he owed $167.56 for the next month's supply. Mr. Flores had reached the notorious gap in Medicare's drug coverage. He had to pay the full price of Byetta. His Medicare drug plan paid nothing.

"It's almost useless," said Mr. Flores, a 66-year-old school bus mechanic who was interviewed at his home in La Joya, Tex. "I'm paying the premium, but not getting protection."

Naturally, Flores isn't happy about the situation and neither are many of the other senior citizens of this nation who are sitting in the same boat as Flores. I think this screw up by the republicans might be the one that comes back to haunt them the worst, although Democrats need to get out in front of the issue to make it work for them.

Every Democrat running this fall should be out there telling the elderly that if we take the House and Senate we are going to fix this ridiculous policy. This is one constituency that is definitely going to show up to vote in November.