Let there be no question about it, I am a lifelong, very centrist, very moderate Republican.
However in the recent years anytime the administration brags about "giving us“ something, I urge you to run not walk in the other direction. Consider the story about the Trojan horse, and take my word for it. This is one gift horse you should look in the mouth.
I refer of course to Medicare Part D. I was doing just fine in my retirement thanks to the generosity of drug company assistance plans.
Enter Part D and, except for Merck and Astra Zeneca, the drug companies couldn't wait to dump their assistance programs. Many of us fell through the cracks for one reason or another.
Because I was in the regular army during the Korean war, I applied to the VA for their medication plan and was graciously accepted.
I want to make it clear that the VA people in Kansas are great, I couldn't ask for better. But the VA has a budget problem and now the "generous" administration proposes that the co-payment, etc. that veterans pay, should be seriously raised, plus a entrance payment.
Unfortunately the VA is no panacea. If you do better on a drug that is not on their shelf, you need to go out and buy it yourself. They do offer substitutes but those do not always work, so you are out of luck.
The VA protocol is to offer the least expensive drug available — and that is the way it should be and is why their plan is so successful — but for some of us elderly this does not always work.
So I am looking at Part D again, but a pig is a pig is a pig, and no matter how the administration tries, it cannot spin this pig into something else.
Just wait until more and more seniors hit that doughnut hole and listen for the screams of protest.
I won't be the only one who "fell through the cracks.”
Tom Wayne
You can write to Tom, at tomwayne1@cox.net
