New Medicare Plan Creates Public Health Debacle
California and New York have already had to pony up emergency state funds so that the elderly and poor can get the medications they need. Gee, we never saw THAT coming.
The problems appear to stem from the fact that 6 million elderly, low-income and disabled people – including 1 million Californians – were automatically switched into the new drug program Jan. 1. These people previously had been covered by the Medicaid state-federal health care program for the poor, called Medi-Cal in California.
The system was apparently not equipped to handle the influx.
“The result is a major health emergency in California, particularly for people with chronic and debilitating diseases who rely on multiple medications daily to keep them alive,” [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein wrote. (Feinstein voted FOR the medicare bill - ed.)
“In my view, the state of California is absorbing a federal cost caused by incompetence,” she wrote.