Wampum

Last night I sat down to pay the household bills. As usual during such times, I was not in a good mood. Thank heaven we drive old cars and do not have to make car payments. There was $83 to Time Warner for the package of cable plus internet. Fifty-something went for school lunches for Bobby and the light bill was a little over $89. Local phone service was $33 (we do not usecell phones). I was dreading even looking at the natural gas bill.

There was one monthly bill that was not in my stack. Nonetheless, we have to pay it. It is a bill for $51 for Medicare Part D (the prescription drug plan). Now, no one in this house is even within a decade of being eligible for Medicare and none of our prescription drug costs are covered by any government program.

There are lots of government programs that we help pay for with our tax dollars that we do not personally use. If the $50 a month bill for Medicare Part D allows older Americans to fill their prescriptions without choosing between food and medicine, I would not complain.

What was the bill for? A little Googling turned up this TMP Café post by Jeff Cruz, which, in turn, led me to this report (pdf) by Dean Baker.

Baker's study found that the Medicare Part D plan enacted into law costs $800 billion more over a decade than a prescription drug benefit administered through Medicare (as opposed to insurance companies) that was permitted to negotiate discounts from the pharmaceutical companies for bulk purchases.

As the press release about the study says:

Specific provisions of the Medicare prescription drug program inserted at the request of pharmaceutical and HMO interests will cost taxpayers and seniors more than $80 billion a year, according to a report released today by the Institute for America's Future and the Center for Economic and Policy Research...

Dr. Dean Baker, author of the report, said that the primary source of the waste is the Bush administration's decision to provide coverage through private providers and to prohibit -- at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry -- Medicare from using its leverage as a bulk buyer to negotiate lower prices. Baker compared the current program with the most simple and efficient way to cover the cost of prescription drugs: a simple add-on to the basic Medicare program, comparable to the prescription drug benefit provided by most private health insurers.

Please note that the $50 per month per taxpayer does not actually buy any medicine for Granny. That charge is just to allow Republicans to pay off their interest groups so as to keep the money flowing into their campaigns from the big drug companies and HMOs.

It actually makes my natural gas bill look reasonable by comparison.

Note: Edited for clarity.