A report from deep in the heart of a Florida senior center kicks off the rather late Boston Globe attack on Paul Ryan and defense of Obama's record on Medicare. Among its many deceits, this August 30, 2012 article quotes
"(Wasserman-Schultz) said, for example, that the Obama plan includes a provision that already saves many seniors up to $3,000 annually in prescription drug costs, as well as thousands of dollars worth of health screenings."
This would be hard to do because the size of the donut hole is only around $4000 so the most you can spend and the most you can save in the donut hole is around $2000 (50% discount in 2012) even if you fell all the way through the hole.
Of course, and you'll never hear this from the Globe, less than 1% of seniors nationwide do fall all the way into the donut hole and almost no one does in Massachusetts because of Prescription Advantage unless they make more than $55,000 in retirement. Most important, per the original George Bush law (that's really what these pro-Obama lies are all about after all--hatred of George Bush by the Globe), no low income senior can ever be affected by the donut hole.
And, Ms. Schultz, you couldn't spend "thousands of dollars on Medicare approved health screenings" in a year never mind save that much. Most of the screenings now covered by Medicare without a co-pay are bi-annual or one-time or have some other asterisk on them. Almost none involve seeing a doctor, the useful part of getting a screening, and the ones that have been most hyped by Obama -- mammograms for women and PSA tests for men -- have been ruled useless by Obama's own administration.
How about Medicare covering annual physicals and adding catastrophic coverage like Obamacare has? That would be worth bragging about.
-- Dennis Byron
