Lost in all the campaign discussion about the effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- better known as Obamacare -- on traditional Medicare Parts A and B and Part C Medicare health plans is the fact that President Obama and the Democratic Party also wants to gut the highly popular and successful Medicare Part D drug program. Democrats still have a proposal on the table to totally change the way Part D works for the worse and the reason can be based on nothing other than the party's and the president's continuing hatred for George Bush.
Naturally -- given Part D's popularity among seniors and the fact that it is open enrollment time for both Parts C and D from now until December 7 -- the left-wing mainstream press is not saying anything about this OTHER Democratic-party proposal to end "Medicare as we know it." Since implementation Bush's Part D has saved Massachusetts seniors alone from $2 to $3 billion (and saved the state of Massachusetts some serious money as well).
The Democratic proposal to gut the Part D drug program is ususally couched in a way that compares Part D to the VA drug program although any comparison is ludicrous but typical left-wing-academic nuttiness. The VA is a health provision system like Worcester's Reliant Medical Group or Boston's Partners or Kaiseer Permanente or the Mayo Clinics. It's not an insurance plan. The VA is a great health provider for eligible vets that live near a VA hospital or clinic but it has drawbacks like any other clinic/HMO (in the original sense of that term) approach; you can only use its doctors and you need to get to one of its facilities for health care unless you have a demonstrable emergency.
When you vote on the Medicare issue in November, don't forget what Obama wants to do to Part D.
-- Dennis Byron
