'D' for 'Disaster'

As you can see, Medicare Part D works for everyone -- if, by "everyone," you mean Big Pharma.

Medicare Part D, the federal government's new prescription drug plan, has forever changed the way Roxanne Marek and her pharmacist, Bruce Scheinson, do business together.

For the past five years, Marek, of Medford, has gone to the drug store Scheinson co-owns, Centereach Pharmacy and Surgical, to get her prescriptions filled. She likes the accommodating atmosphere there and even calls the place "Cheers," after the friendly bar from the TV show. It's where she has picked up her 30 prescriptions for various ailments, including chronic back pain, lupus and depression.

That all changed on Jan. 1, when the government automatically enrolled her in a new, privately run drug plan. The new plan said she had to switch three of her drugs, won't cover two more and charged her a co-pay of $91.50 for another prescription. But the bigger problem for her are all the new co-pays. Although most are just $1 to $3 each, Marek lives on just $710 a month from Supplemental Security Income payments. Stretched thin by the drug costs, last month she passed on paying her electric bill and isn't sure she can afford the insurance for her car.

Scheinson has problems of his own under Medicare Part D, which was intended to give more seniors drug coverage. He said he has lost more than $50,000 since Jan. 1 because of lower reimbursements under Part D or from co-pays he waived initially because many of his patients, like Marek, couldn't afford them. And he spends far more hours then ever on the phone negotiating with the drug providers. One recent Monday morning, he was trying to help a disabled patient obtain a long-prescribed drug that was no longer covered by the man's new plan.

"This is not a discussion of health," he said as the clock showed he had been on hold 27 minutes. "This is just trying to get a prescription filled to put in his hand."

The story goes on to point out that 37 states (74 percent, if you're interested) are offering emergency drug coverage because so many people were unable to get the medications they need under Medicare Part D.

Commenting on Medicare Part D, George Bush said,

"It can be confusing to people, but if you work through the options ... in the end it is a really good deal," Bush told seniors at Riderwood Village, a retirement community outside Washington.

Imagine how hard you have to fuck up everything else that you travel around the country drawing attention to a train wreck like this.

You don't have to imagine. Just look at Iraq, the deficit, America's reputation around the world, the environment, gas prices, the state of civil liberties, the treatment of detainees, the number of convictions in the "war on terrah," what the NSA has been up to, airport screeners who can't detect bomb-making material, piss-poor port security, and the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

I guess for the Bush administration, Medicare Part D is about as good as it gets.

Even their successes are failures.