benefits coverage

Since the health care half-D drug profit was revealed, it has proven to be even more complicated and wasteful than its detractors expected. Even seniors who are ready to enroll in the program could expect a $3,000 gap in edge coverage and a high monthly premium.

Already, the government has had to change the program: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services revised an earlier directive that barred new Medicare medication plan users from participating in free or subsidized medicine programs promoted by pharmaceutical companies.

We can't, however, stop there. The reversal does not include the whole cost of those pills in the seniors' $3,000 requirement, which would put some in the poorhouse.

The executive says that the company's new earnings may be a good deal for those who do not appear to be qualified for Medicaid. Nonetheless, most consumers pay not only a $250 deductible but also a 25% co-insurance on subsequent $2,000 in covered prescription expenditures. Add around $32 per person each month for a monthly fee. Furthermore, the new healthcare plan requires every senior to conceal 100% of expenditures beyond $2,000 until disastrous coverage comes in at $5,100.

We can and should close the gaps that are threatening seniors' commercial business health while they battle to maintain their physical health. Non-public firms have already begun to act. A group of pharmaceutical corporations announced an initiative known as "Bridge Rx," which will assist seniors who are $3,000 in debt to purchase their meds. Seniors will receive prescription savings of at least 50% in return for a 15% co-pay.

Washington could also intervene by requiring consumers who qualify for subsidized pharmaceutical company programs like Bridge Rx but still pay a monthly half-D premium to consider the whole cost of their meds' formulary value against the $3,000 shortfall. The goal of the healthcare medication program was to help elders, not to make money for insurance and drugstore profit managers. It is now time to follow through on the promises made.