When is something not better than nothing? When it is George W. Bush's Prescription drug plan designed to help seniors. Although seniors make up only 12 percent of the population, they use one third of all prescription drugs sold in the United States.
Under the current bill, seniors will have to pay a $35 a month premium, a $250 deductible, and 25% of drug expenses until $2,250. At $2,250, seniors enter what is called the ‘donut hole’ where they will have to pay, out-of-pocket, for the next $2850 in drug expenses, until they reach $5100. After $5100, the senior will qualify for catastrophic coverage. Basically, seniors must pay for the first $4,020 of $5,100 in drug benefits. Then January rolls around and these lucky seniors get to pay all over again.
As an example, let's take a widowed senior citizen with an annual income of $24,000. She uses $500 per month in retail prescription drugs. If you took Candidate George W. Bush at his word, you might think that this senior would have to pay nothing out-of-pocket. This is not the case. This senior will end up paying $4,587.50 of the $6000 per year she uses on prescription drugs. That's almost 80% of the total drug cost! Starting in June and ending with October, she will be paying a whopping $635 per month on her prescription drugs. That's 31.75%!
Gov. George W. Bush stated during the 2000 presidential campaign that "all seniors are covered under prescription drugs in my plan". That is unless you looked at his plan. Only seniors that earned less than $11,300 per year qualify and seniors with $14,600 worth of annual income would have partial coverage. Others could receive 25 percent of the premium for a drug plan, but that didn't help those in the middle who might not be able to afford the other 75 percent. Governor Bush's statement was a lie then and President Bush's Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is a sham now.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Yearly Totals | |
| Monthly Retail Drug Cost | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $6,000.00 |
| Monthly Income | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | $24,000.00 |
| Monthly Premium | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($35.00) | ($420.00) |
| Annual Deductible | ($250.00) | ($250.00) | |||||||||||
| co-pay or Donut Hole | ($62.50) | ($125.00) | ($125.00) | ($125.00) | ($190.00) | ($475.00) | ($475.00) | ($475.00) | ($475.00) | ($475.00) | ($142.50) | ($125.00) | ($3,270.00) |
| total left for living | $1,652.50 | $1,840.00 | $1,840.00 | $1,840.00 | $1,775.00 | $1,490.00 | $1,490.00 | $1,490.00 | $1,490.00 | $1,490.00 | $1,822.50 | $1,840.00 | $20,060.00 |
| Total out-of-pocket expenxe | ($347.50) | ($160.00) | ($160.00) | ($160.00) | ($225.00) | ($510.00) | ($510.00) | ($510.00) | ($510.00) | ($510.00) | ($177.50) | ($160.00) | ($3,940.00) |
| Percentage paid by Medicare | 17.38% | 8.00% | 8.00% | 8.00% | 11.25% | 25.50% | 25.50% | 25.50% | 25.50% | 25.50% | 8.88% | 8.00% | |
| Annually paid by senior | ($3,940.00) | ||||||||||||
| Annually paid by the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan | $2,060.00 | ||||||||||||
| Percentage of prescription drugs paid by the senior | -65.67% | ||||||||||||
| Percentage of prescription drugs paid by the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan | 34.33% | ||||||||||||