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4/11/2007
Deeper and deeper into the entitlement web
An entitlement? Of course, SeniorCare is an entitlement. A charity program, operated with your tax dollars and mine. Just like Social Security and Medicare – government programs that were/are sold as insurance programs, but indeed, always were very apparent giveaway programs.
In my days, I was taught the TINSTAAFL management principle – There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I guess that makes me a real old timer, because these days there’s an entire group of people that expects – no, demands – to be provided for without paying their fair share of the pie.
One tiny example that is really bugging me is Representative Kagen’s latest giveaway campaign – HR 1521 – which would remove the 1% per month “late enrollment fee” levied on seniors who don’t sign up for Medicare D by a prescribed deadline. Kagen whines that the late fee is “unfair” because Medicare is so complicated. His office says the congressman has received a number of complaints and concerns about the fee.
(The Medicare web site does a terrific job of sorting through the variables for folks. Can’t or don’t like doing it? What happened to asking for help from an adult child or heaven forbid, from a neighbor, a fellow churchgoer or a community organization?)
Dang it. The penalty exists as one small motivator to get seniors to participate in the risk pool. The more seniors participating who don’t yet need the protection against high drug costs, the better to reduce the overall risk of the covered pool.
Isn’t it interesting that my Representative campaigns all over the place for universal health care and universal health pricing, wanting to bring all citizens into a “single insurance risk pool,” (oh my gosh) and at the same time is working against a motivator that will serve to get more healthy seniors into the Medicare drug risk pool more quickly.
Well, that gets me back to SeniorCare. A program with very few controls, used by many to escape getting into Medicare D until they absolutely have to. We did just that for my mother-in-law. She doesn’t use many drugs and absolutely didn’t want to deal with Medicare D. Ok, that’s fine and dandy we argued, but how should we best be insuring against the possibility of future losses?
We’re doing a couple of things. We paid the very cheap $30 SeniorCare annual fee. We applied, using close guesstimates of mom’s assets and annual income (which are not great, but not at poverty level either). That insures our entry into Medicare D without any “late enrollment fees” when it becomes advantageous for us to use it. (What a deal.) And we’re carefully allocating scarce dollars to an important reserve fund that will pay the costs of drugs not paid for by the government programs.
I’d say we’re gaming the system. And with SeniorCare, we could have gamed it even more had we wanted to shade the truth by claiming asset or income levels that would allow greater access to SeniorCare coverage. Can you believe that information isn’t audited by the state? I’d say that’s some serious lack of oversight.
SeniorCare serves a purpose, paying for drugs for low-income Wisconsinites. But as it is now, it’s serving as an expensive giveaway program for many folks that should be in Medicare D.
COMMENTS
You are terribly misinformed on the Wisconsin SeniorCare program vs Part D. I have done considerable research into both and have concluded, SeniorCare is what Part D should be. Part D as constituted is a hell hole which was put togther by the drug interests without the interest of senior citizens in mind. You comment that SeniorCare in an entitlement program, what do you think Medicare and Part D is ??? I suggest you bolster your knowledge of the programs before going public with misinformation because, someone might believe you and that could cause harm. I share your opinion of Mr. Kagen. I would much rather have seen Terry McCormick in the office but, her party sold her down the river for the candidate who couldn't match Kagen's intellect. But enough - you're wrong on SeniorCare, I'm right and you'll have to live with that. ---Gee Walt, how do you really feel? I hear what you're saying. What's important in what I'm saying is to acknowledge that SeniorCare and Medicare D are both expensive entitlement programs - and we must continually work on controlling those costs. There is no such thing as a free lunch. And there aren't free lunches for everybody. JE
walt kalata (Wed Apr 11 23:35:47 2007)
I don't think that the medicare website is a simple one to use. Assume you are a man living in California who needs to take 30 10mg tablets of Lipitor a month.
Which prescription drug plan is the cheapest/best for you? How much will it cost? What are the limitations?
I spent a half-hour on the site and couldn't answer those questions. Interesting. I've used it for my mother-in-law; she uses only one medication. and worked it through to the end. I appreciate your observations - I'm going to try the site again. JE
Michael (Thu Aug 09 01:54:11 2007)
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