Thursday, January 19, 2006
L.A. Times, Michael Hiltzik, in any case, is beginning to get it.
(note, I composed this post as a comment over at Americablog this moring.)
Finally, in the L.A. Times this morning is a Michael Hiltzik column that begins to tell a little truth about this Scam. As I have been watching these articles, none have begun to tell what an incredible Orwellian maneuver this Part D has been. Even in this piece, (another is promised for Monday) in paragraph 6, there is an oversight of understatement.
Unfortunately not! Anyone who was enrolled in a Medicare HMO coverage, (e.g. at Pacific Care - Secure Horizons in California) was automatically enrolled in Part D as of the first of the year. The reasons given by the HMO included that since the former coverage (2005 and before) included drug coverage (virtually free, but for a copay), they didn't want any of their customers to find themselves suddenly without drug coverage at the first of the year. And an option to enroll in a "medical only" plan, in Los Angeles and several other counties of California, was accidentally left off of the form for renewing your coverage for 2006. And no matter what they say about, even, the websites (of little use to seniors in any case) this sort of information was not articulated at all. I only began to realize what was happening when the new premium payment booklet ($40 per month) arrived in the mail at my mother's home.
All the television kept saying was, "it's all voluntary, you don't have to do anything, now," while in fact, letters duly went out to all of the recipients involved, dubiously informing them of the changes. In my own mother's case, this meant that she simultaneous lost her free drug coverage at her pension, and the pension's October letter, I belatedly found out, warned that she would be automatically cancelled if she enrolled in Part D. Further, her free drug coverage would not be reinstated.
I haven't explained this all that clearly, but I initially spent at least a day and a half just discovering the "catch 22" nature of what our wonderfully, compassionately conservative government has/had done, in order to get re-elected.
Hiltzik's normally great columns appear in the Business Section, this one, of course, should be on the front page. ¶ 10:14 AM
Finally, in the L.A. Times this morning is a Michael Hiltzik column that begins to tell a little truth about this Scam. As I have been watching these articles, none have begun to tell what an incredible Orwellian maneuver this Part D has been. Even in this piece, (another is promised for Monday) in paragraph 6, there is an oversight of understatement.
"Unlike Medicare-only members, for whom the new benefit is voluntary, these patients [those who are currently both Medicare and Medicaid recipients] were automatically enrolled in the new system as of Jan. 1."
Unfortunately not! Anyone who was enrolled in a Medicare HMO coverage, (e.g. at Pacific Care - Secure Horizons in California) was automatically enrolled in Part D as of the first of the year. The reasons given by the HMO included that since the former coverage (2005 and before) included drug coverage (virtually free, but for a copay), they didn't want any of their customers to find themselves suddenly without drug coverage at the first of the year. And an option to enroll in a "medical only" plan, in Los Angeles and several other counties of California, was accidentally left off of the form for renewing your coverage for 2006. And no matter what they say about, even, the websites (of little use to seniors in any case) this sort of information was not articulated at all. I only began to realize what was happening when the new premium payment booklet ($40 per month) arrived in the mail at my mother's home.
All the television kept saying was, "it's all voluntary, you don't have to do anything, now," while in fact, letters duly went out to all of the recipients involved, dubiously informing them of the changes. In my own mother's case, this meant that she simultaneous lost her free drug coverage at her pension, and the pension's October letter, I belatedly found out, warned that she would be automatically cancelled if she enrolled in Part D. Further, her free drug coverage would not be reinstated.
I haven't explained this all that clearly, but I initially spent at least a day and a half just discovering the "catch 22" nature of what our wonderfully, compassionately conservative government has/had done, in order to get re-elected.
Hiltzik's normally great columns appear in the Business Section, this one, of course, should be on the front page. ¶ 10:14 AM
