[lbo-talk] Medicrap

[Jim Devine]

>From SLATE's news summary: >The Washington Post leads with the story
we've been hearing a lot of lately: the many problems plaguing
Medicare recipients since the new prescription drug program went into
effect two weeks ago, leaving sick and poor beneficiaries without
medicine. Ohio and Wisconsin joined 14 other states Friday in a pledge
to cover the drug costs of low-income seniors who are being denied or
overcharged for medication. ... The Medicare debacle is pitting states
against the federal government in some cases, as state officials
trying to do right by Medicare recipients may find themselves losing a
serious amount of cash. Some have already racked up unexpected drug
bills totaling more than several million dollars because they've
bailed out the beneficiaries screwed over by the new program, but the
administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, Mark McClellan, said he did not have the authority to
reimburse those costs to the states.<

isn't that the Bush way (Bullshido?) to dump the costs of his program
on the states?

also in the news: >Echoing Swift Boat Veteran tactics, critics of John
Murtha charged on a conservative Web site Friday that the former
Marine may not have earned his Purple Hearts during the Vietnam War,
the Post reports.<
--
Jim Devine
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an
intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin