Free Drugs FOr Wizened Citizens (Boortz)

Neal Boortz Program Notes ^ | June 13, 2003 | Neal Boortz

[rattrap]

FREE DRUGS FOR WIZENED CITIZENS

Step by step … here is how it’s going to work. Print this and safe it.  You can show it to your children or grandchildren to help explain why the government is taking 60% of everything they earn. 

1. Democrats propose a grand new spending program.  Senior citizens are going to be able to use someone else’s money to buy their prescription drugs.  Senior citizens pledge their electoral support to Democrats as thanks.
2. Republicans start chanting “me too!” and get on board with the free drugs for old folks plan, hoping that at least some of the wrinkled class will vote for them.
3. Senior citizens spend an average of $650 a year on prescription drugs right now.  As soon as the drug benefit is added to Medicare the pharmaceutical companies will start marketing many more drugs to old folks.  “Ask your doctor about Noasital.”
4. Seniors will rush off to their Medicare doctors and say “Tell me about Noasital.”  They’ll insist on a prescription for Noaiital, and any other drug they happen to see advertised, and many doctors will be all too willing to go along.
5. The average yearly spending by seniors on prescription drugs will skyrocket from $650 a year to thousands of dollars a year. 
6. In short order the projections for spending on the new prescription drug benefit will have been left in the dust.  What was sold to us as a $40 billion a year program will be costing well over $100 billion a year .. and going nowhere but up.  Politicians and bureaucrats will start expressing their “concerns” and a fix will be demanded.
7. The “fix” to rising spending on drugs for wrinkled class will be to put limits on what Medicare will pay for certain prescription drugs, just as Medicare has already put limits on what will be paid for certain medical services.
8. Pharmaceutical companies will find that they aren’t making any money on selling these drugs to seniors because of the Medicare price controls.  In fact, they may find that they are actually losing money. To compensate for these lost profits the pharmaceutical companies will simply increase prices for these and other drugs to their non-Medicare patients. 
9. As the prices of prescription drugs for non-Medicare Americans go up, so will the price of health insurance coverage.  Insurance companies aren’t going to suffer these increased costs without passing them off to the insured.  Basically this is the same thing that has happened in many other areas of health care.  Medicare institutes price controls, health care providers make up the difference by charging other patients more, health insurance companies raise premiums … and so on.
10. As prescription prices and health insurance premiums increase for non-Medicare Americans, so will the demand for politicians to step in and do something.  Politicians, always hungry for both votes and power, will be all-too-happy to oblige.
11. Politicians will start demagoguing drug companies.  They will be called “greedy” and will be accused of “profiteering” and “exploiting” the frail health of our precious senior citizens.
12. After a short period of scare-mongering the politicians will vote to institute price controls on the pharmaceutical companies.  Politicians will tell us that they are doing this to reign in these greedy corporate monsters who are becoming obscenely rich on the backs of sick Americans.
13. With price controls the earnings figures for pharmaceutical companies will go into the toilet. 
14. As earnings go down pharmaceutical companies will have less and less to spend on research and development for new drugs.  Research into ways to treat disease will show down and, eventually, will become the province of government.
15. Government will be the eventual beneficiary of this mess as the masses clamor for more and more government solutions to these problems that are perceived to be the fault of the private sector.

[rattrap]

So this validates the endless cycle of paying more and more taxes for those who refuse (that's right i said refuse) to be responsible for themselves? The taxes americas elderly paid have long since been spent, if i ever have children i don't want them to pay 60% or more in taxes so they can pay for my pills, I don't want ot be a burdon on anyone other than myself, and if more people would take this attitude instead of calling the WAAAHmbulance of entitlement, we may be able to fix this problem. I can be compassionate of others by not piling my needs on top of their own. I'm sorry but the only justification i can find for lack of personal responsibilty is physical inabilitly or mental illness. Otherwise there's no excuse for not taking care of yourself, or planning for your future.

Can you fill a hole by digging it deeper?

[bedolido]

It amazes me how short-sighted some people are. The seniors have paid taxes all their lives to put (you and your) kids thru public schools, build libraries, Interstate hwys, care for fereral land and monuments, and countless other things. You can't turn your head without seeing what their tax dollars has already bought you.

Stop Whining and Do Your Part!

[rattrap]

Yeah, and my taxes will pay for the next generations MORE schools, MORE libraries, MORE highways, MORE etc. Do i think this entitles me to raise their childrens tax burden so i can get my perscriptions from the imperial federal goverment for free, comrade? i think not.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Atlas Shrugged.

[usmom]

Cry me a river, dude! Whining about a $10 co-payment. Like I don't hear that about a hundred times a day. Guess what? My husband and have both worked since we were teenagers, also and are paying for our own house, health and RX insurance. And another thing- I will NEVER be a greedy senior like you. I will never expect other people to pay for my needs! Never! Oh, and by the way, I am 37 and already on blood pressure medication, too, mostly due to having to deal with people like you all day! I fill my own prescription and I have to pay a $35 co-pay, so don't even go there!

[genefromjersey]

Okay, dude-ess: I know you have to put up with pushy,self-involved,argumentive, gabby, and annoyingly slow (!) seniors all day - especially around the beginning of the month ; and I know we can be maddening !

I don't particularly gripe about co-pays, because I can see on the statement how much of the prescription was paid by my plan, and I know, without some sort of plan, we'd be up the proverbial creek. I wonder,sometimes how some of the seniors get by.

I would make a respectful suggestion : The next time you look in a mirror ( perhaps to check for an unwanted gray hair )take a long, hard look at the person reflected there.

If your troubles, and your pains, and your day-to-day irritations are bad now , what kind of person are you going to be a very few years down the road ?

Do you think the clerks at the pharmacy will smile happily when you come trudging in with your prescriptions ?

[usmom]

I wonder,sometimes how some of the seniors get by.

Hey, did you ever wonder how everyone else gets by?! Seniors are the only people with bills and medical care to pay for? What about young people just starting out and struggling to make it? What about families like mine who are working hard and trying to raise their children and give them advantages so they can make it in life- paying a mortgage, health and life insurance and taxes up the wazoo, saving for retirement and kids' education, maybe even caring for older parents on top of it all. Yet let's take even more from these people and pay for senior's drugs with it. What a great, fair, plan.

I don't know what your point was about the mirror. But no, I will never 'trudge' into a pharmacy and give the people on the other side of the counter a hard time. I know all too well what that feels like and wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. Nor will I go through the drive-thru to pick up my prescription in a brand-new Cadillac and scream at the pharmacist because it is so expensive to pay for 4 months of medication before I go to my condo in Florida for the winter.

[genefromjersey]

Let me get this straight: You think I got to be a senior without going to work at an early age, struggling to raise children,dealing with bill collectors,putting off badly needed health and dental care because the children had to come first ? Without working so much overtime the kids thought I had abandoned them ? Without paying the same kind of dues you are paying now ?

Oh, of course ! I had forgotten ! ( Senior moments, you know .)You and the rest of your generation are the only folks who have had to struggle; and yours has been a struggle that will be marvelled at through the ages !

I'd ask what you are going to be when you grow up, but thankfully, I won't be around to care.

[eeman]

Nor will I ...scream at the pharmacist because it is so expensive to pay for 4 months of medication before I go to my condo in Florida for the winter

OOOOH. Ouch.

To genefromjersey: If you are getting your RX coverage from a non-governmental plan, then you or your spouse probably earned them through previous or current employment. If you are retired, have you thought about the consequences of this new entitlement? If it passes, your RX plan will be dropped and you will be told to go to the medicare plan. This will be okay for a while until the program costs skyrocket, and then you will be restricted on your formulary, higher copays, etc. So be careful what you wish for. Go ask a veteran how easy it is to get medications from the VA, especially for newer highly effective medications such as the newer diabetes meds

As for usmom's frustration, I can empathize. I know you have paid taxes but so do we. The difference is when I am a senior citizen in need of medical therapy, I suspect the plan will be so restricted either by income limitations or formulary restrictions that it will be useless--just like Social security will be, even though I have paid/will pay into it for many years

[genefromjersey]

I hear what you're saying : both of you ; but I doubt either SS or Medicare is going to go broke. I think it will, as you suggest, become a lot more like the not-so-hot Canadian and British plans, and I think, as Buchanan suggests,our "paying population" will become a LOT more foreign-born, because we'll be looking for people who favor large families to subsidize those of us who have chosen to limit ours.

Not a happy picture, however you hang it !

[usmom]

No, but the difference is, I will not expect the younger people to bear the burden of paying for my drugs on top of everything else. Why do you feel this is fair? No other generation has recieved this benefit. Why should it suddenly be given to you? Isn't that not only unfair to the younger people who will be paying for it, but to the generations that have come before and made do without it? You simply will not admit that this plan is welfare entitlement and income redistribution plain and simple. You can't see beyond the fact that you think you have put in your dues and now you want something to make your life easier (don't we all), no matter what hardships it puts on other people. You say you have children yet you feel this is a fair burden to put upon them- for them to subsidize every senior in America's drug costs out of their hard-earned money. My parents are over 65 and certainly don't feel that way. They have worked hard, saved and lived according to their means so that they could take care of themselves in retirement. They don't expect others to pay for it and resent the fact that others who have not lived and planned wisely will get a free ride.

[sarasmom]

Gene, it is already "broke".
I pay more taxes into Social Security than I do in Federal Income Tax.I also have the added joy of paying separately into Medicare.
They are conveniently separated on my payroll statements, but every dime goes into the Feds slush fund, and none of it goes into a "lockbox".
And according to the Feds themselves, they incurr no obligation to provide me with any benefits in the future.
Are you familiar with Ponsi schemes?Did you know only the Feds can legally run one?
They call them social security, medicare, and medicaid.
I am one of the vast millions who got in late....
No, I dont think a new prescription drug benefit should be added for retired seniors collecting part of my paycheck.
I am 45,I work, and I pay for my current health insurance, and I could not fill two prescriptions I got last week. untill today.
A host of smug retires will sit back and tell me I need to manage my finances better, and I should have planned for the unexpected and saved more money.
Right back at them!
Note to all the greedy jerks who have whined for this new and monstrous burden on my wages:
Cant pay for prescriptions on a fixed retirement budget?
Sell off all your assets untill you are destitute, apply for public housing and ask the local churches to help you out.
Most importantly, dont you dare look me in the eyes and lie to me that you paid for it when you were employed and paid taxes.
Otherwise, have a nice day!
(GFJ this is a rant, and not neccessarily directed at you, since I have no idea if you are one of the gray haired mafia who thinks my purpose on Earth is to provide for your retirement years, instead of my childs future, or not)

[MattAMiller]

There are plenty of seniors in the world who live to get new prescriptions. My own grandmother is one of them. She was up to nearly 20 medications before she started hearing voices and seeing little people running around. We had to put her in the hospital and the doctors got her down to 6 or so.

[rattrap]

I'm sorry about your Grandmother, thats a terrible thing.

Just think about how bad it will get once it becomes a socialist welfare, vote-buying scam. Money will no longer be an issue (well except for those of us WHO HAVE NONE BECAUSE OF THE ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY SUFFERED BY SOME) so doctors, who will soon be federal doctors, can keep perscribing and seniors can get hooked on more and more drugs.

[usmom]

gray haired mafia who thinks my purpose on Earth is to provide for your retirement years, instead of my childs future, or not)

Now that's a good one. What a perfect description. I must remember that: 'gray haired mafia'. They think they're just sweet little old people cashing in on what they are owed, but they may as well put a gun to your head, knock you down and make off with your wallet! The end result is the same- they have your money and you don't!

[Little Bill]

Do we owe old people, aside from our parents anything? Does being old give these people a right to reach in to our walletts?

[Bob2503]

This is A very good program for a limited number of people. I am a senior citizen but this program should not apply to me and millions of other senior citizens. There are many who have not been as fortunate in their lives and require assistance. This program should only be available to them.
Ross Perot, Bill Gates and millions of other less fortunate but able to pay should not be included in the bill. This is a typical law passed by our fine legislators that is designed to get votes without any consideration for the young non voting generation.

[sarasmom]

I live in Florida.
Retirement heaven for people who have no vested community interest in the state, outside of their retirement villages.
OTOH, our lifelong resident seniors,are too proud to take "charity" from the government, and the 900' cracker house they raised a family in, is declared an eyesore by the new developement properties, and get condemned, by the "new" neighbors.
Florida has a huge number of displaced elderly people who moved here to retire as a couple,but who's partner died and now they are alone, with no extended family, or friends.
It is heartbreaking to watch them try to navigate end of life issues under these circumstances.
OTOH,these people vote, and attempt to drive.
Both of the above actions have contributed greatly to the decline of our state, and generational incivility.

[genefromjersey]

Where did I say I favored the proposal ?

What I was speaking out about was the open contempt expressed towards seniors: those "wizened" old farts who have the audacity to live too long.

I don't know if it has occurred to you yet, but there are folks, whose political future is almost totally dependent on setting one category of American against another:rich vs poor,black vs white, immigrant vs native,and yes,wage earner vs retiree.

The people who divide us, and who profit from the division, come from both sides of the political aisle, and they present wide range of divergent political views; but they are united ( after a fashion ) by one common goal:obtaining or maintaining political power; and if you think any of them really give a tinker's dam about you and your problems- you are just the person they've been looking for.

[genefromjersey]

I'll plead guilty to the gray hair-what's left of it, and I'll even admit to a "Modern Maturity" subscription, which I get as a member of AARP.

I don't agree with all of AARP's views -( They seem to be espousing Canadian-style socialized medicine, and other preferential treatment for seniors )- but I don't subscribe to the view that seniors should go off quietly to die on an ice floe either.

I gather, from what you said about taxes, you are self-employed - which is about the only situation I can imagine in which SS taxes would exceed income taxes-and that you are still hopeful of making a profit one of these quarters.
( Been there-done that.Found I was several thousand dollars a year better off working for someone else...but I digress ! )

People have been saying SS is broke, or going broke for quite a long time.They said it when I was a kid-(back when FDR was president)-and they had figures to prove it; but somehow,it never quite happened.

I'm not saying it won't happen-someday-but I have a feeling you and I,and our childrens' children will be long gone by then.