David Re..While Bush, for example, may not be as bright as Clinton (although all the evidence is that he is exceptionally bright), he has clearly shown superior leadership ability.
While all of the dems are trying to convince people GW is stupid, here is an exercpt from Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.com/news/606532.asp#BODY
BUSH IS PROPOSING a pretty radical business structure for these discount cards. I hate to say so, but it’s kinda Clintonesque. If the plan succeeds, it could be used not only for drug benefits but for other privatized Medicare services, too.
For now, the administration will tout these cards only to seniors—more than 10 million of them—who have poor or no insurance coverage for prescription drugs. They could be in your hands by next Jan. 1. When you show the card at your local drugstore or order drugs by phone or Web, you might get 10 percent to 20 percent off the retail price—and maybe more.
Advertisement
Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn
Other books by Jane Bryant Quinn
To get these discounts, Bush proposes to organize older people into vast buying pools, maybe 10 or 12 of them. The pools will be run by pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs)—the same people who manage drug benefits for corporate health plans now.
The PBMs will negotiate with the drug companies for lower prices on both brand names and generics. Assuming that enough seniors join, the pools should carry real buying clout.
You’ll get the biggest discounts on the drugs that the various manufacturers want to promote. Different PBMs will favor different drugs. After the first year all prices are supposed to be listed on the Web. That way you can find the pool that charges the least for the particular drugs you use. There’s no annual fee for belonging to a PBM and you can’t be charged any more than $25 to join.
As you may remember, President Clinton also proposed health-care pools (he called them “health alliances”) with similar disclosures to help consumers choose. OK, OK—Bush’s plan is far different in complexity and scope. But in concept, we’re talking about a major, government-driven change in the health-care marketplace. It highlights consolidation and competition among giant entities.
To make the government’s interest clear, Medicare will give formal seals of approval to big PBMs that meet certain standards. It will help with marketing—publicizing the discount cards and telling seniors where to sign up. This is not a Medicare benefit (yet). You will pay for the drugs yourself. But the plans will carry the “Medicare” endorsement. From there, it’s a small step to adding a drug subsidy to the card rather than putting a drug benefit into your government insurance program. Probably cheaper, too.
The administration is taking a lot of flak from drugstores that think that the discounts are going to come out of their hide. The druggists will get a dispensing fee for selling the prescriptions. But price cuts will almost certainly squeeze their already-narrow margins. In theory, drugstores could refuse to take the card. But it will be hard to stay out of any private program that carries a Medicare label. A lot of folks will misunderstand and think the card entitles them.
On July 17 the National Association of Chain Drug Stores sued to stop Bush’s drug-discount plan, on the ground that he launched it without following proper procedures. Tom Scully, head of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), says that even if the court agrees with NACDS, a fix wouldn’t take very long. He still plans a January start date. “We intend to create a lot of demand,” he says.
Even without the Bush plan, you can find many ways to buy drugs at a discount today. Among them:
Mail-order and online stores, such as rxusa.com (800-798-7248) or the stores at nabp.org/vipps. Shop all the Web sites for the lowest price and be sure to count the delivery charge.
The Canadian connection. On some drugs, you might find even lower prices at a Canadian pharmacy. Check out MedicineAssist, based in Bennington, Vt. (www.unitedhealthalliance.com or 802-447-3170). You’ll receive a free form that your doctor fills out and faxes to one of two Canadian pharmacies. The pharmacy ships the drugs to your doctor’s office, where you pick them up. They’re charged to your credit card.
Pharmacy cards. Your drugstore may give 10 percent or 15 percent discounts to seniors. These cards could be dropped, however, if PBMs succeed, says Paul Ginsburg of the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, D.C.
Membership drug plans. AARP sells discount drugs to members through a mail-order service. You have to be at least 50 to join. For a card that’s also good at drugstores, you pay $15 a year ($30 for a couple). AARP could become a Medicare-endorsed PBM under the government’s program, but hasn’t yet decided what to do.
The YourxPlan card from Merck-Medco, open to anyone over 18, offers discounts by mail or at participating pharmacies. It costs $25 a year ($40 for families)—at 877-733-6765 or yourxplan.com.
A few states, including New Hampshire, are piloting plans for all seniors who lack drug insurance. Drug-industry members sued and stopped discount programs in Vermont and Washington state.
Newsweek.MSNBC.com
Click on a section below for more News:
• National News
• International News
• Business & Money
• Technology & Health
• Lifestyle & Family
• Entertainment
• Opinion
• Live Talk Lineup
As for Bush’s new program, it remains to be seen whether PBMs can earn the profits they need to stay in business. Some of them may be joining as a defensive move, just in case the the cards do indeed become a way of channeling Medicare benefits, says Marilyn Moon of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.
For seniors, I see no downside. To attract you and get you to use the cards, the PBMs have to offer attractive and competitive discounts. You can’t go wrong if you really get a better deal on drugs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reported by Temma Ehrenfeld
© 2001 Newsweek, Inc.
I see Newsweek agrees with Putin in that GW is a thinker and a visionary, without all of the arrogance, and perverse tendencies. |
