Weapons of Medicare Destruction

[Guest guest]

http://www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125~1511~2032475,00.html

.... Instead of being buried in underground caves and hidden in sequestered

mines, they lie on the pages of government documents and policies. Their

wayward aim goes to the heart of Medicare and the people it serves. ... The

new drug bill also privatizes much of Medicare, an erosion of its

fundamental premise. And, ominously, we have yet to step upon a deadly

landmine that will explode as another consequence of Bush's drug bill: the

government's promise not to bargain down the price of Medicare drugs with

the pharmaceutical companies. ... It's hard to maintain optimism about the

future of Medicare while it is being dismantled so carelessly and sacrificed

so freely to special commercial interests. The drug companies and the

insurance industries are the clear victors with the new drug bill, but at an

increasing expense to the Medicare program and its enrollees who are trying

to get through their old age with reliance on some form of decent health

care.