Doyle Cleans Up Another Green Mess For Elderly

Late last year we found that the Republican’s huge Medicare Prescription Drug Plan put at risk Wisconsin’s superior Senior Care program. It was reported at that time that Governor Doyle personally lobbied HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt to save Senior Care. Although Congressman Mark Green voted for this big government Medicare Plan, he did not have the foresight to see the threat to Wisconsin’s Senior Care until Doyle took charge of the issue. Then Mark “Johnny come lately” Green pretended like he was front and center on the issue.

Now that the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan has taken effect, we are seeing anew how terrible it is for regular folks. A recent story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes some of the problems as follows:

The state Department of Health and Family Services, pharmacists and advocacy
groups say thousands of people in Wisconsin have had trouble getting their
prescriptions since the Jan. 1 start of the Medicare drug plan.
The most
widespread problems have been among the more than 110,000 people who are
eligible for Medicaid as well as Medicare and were automatically enrolled in the
new program.

Governor Doyle, once again having to intervene so that people will not have to go without their medicine, has enacted an emergency “stopgap” until the feds get their act together. This is not exclusive to Wisconsin but reportedly is a problem all over the country.

As many said at the time of it’s passage, the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is a windfall to drug companies. As many predicted, this plan would cause more problems to those that are supposed to be its beneficiaries. Mark Green and other members of Congress should be held responsible for passing this “big government” boondoggle that clearly benefits corporations and has already left many seniors without the medication that they need.