BlogWood: MT Archives

Kill the poor

Jeb! thinks that killing the poor will save money, and he’s right. See, all we have to do is deny people the medicine they need to survive. We’ll save money right away by not having to pay for expensive prescription drugs, and the one-time costs of cadaver disposal will be more than offset by long term savings derived from our shrinking Medicaid rolls.

Now, some naysayers might point out that the rapid rise in Medicaid costs is due to a surge in enrollment, and they might point out that private insurance costs are rising faster than Medicaid costs, and they’d be right on both counts, but Jeb! doesn’t let silly things like facts muddle his logic, and that’s exactly why he is in charge and the naysayers are a bunch of sniveling losers.

Trying to stunt the rapid rise of Florida Medicaid costs, Gov. Jeb Bush wants the state to make its list of approved prescription drugs for the program the most restrictive in the nation.

The 2.3 million poor and disabled Floridians who rely on Medicaid for health care would lose access to hundreds of types of drugs in today's medicine cabinets. Those include treatments for mental illness and AIDS, despite a lack of less-expensive alternatives in such categories.
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Florida has tried to cut its drug costs in recent years by reducing payments to pharmacies and requiring patients to be approved specifically for some medicines.

But Bush's proposal envisions carving $292 million from a $2.2 billion drug budget by limiting Medicaid recipients to the single cheapest drug in about 60 categories.
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Currently, all states pay for drugs approved by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That agency negotiates contracts with drug makers that provide steep rebates from published wholesale prices.

The result is that state Medicaid programs receive the lowest-priced drugs among all buyers with the exception of the Veterans Affairs Department. In return, states agree to pay for any drug on the approved list.

For Florida to limit its list, known as a formulary, the state would need federal approval to opt out of the current structure, according to the governor's proposal. The state then would lose all discounts negotiated by the federal agency.

``They are going to lose all the rebates,'' worth about $687 million in state spending, warned Dave Nickles, a Tallahassee lobbyist for drug maker Pfizer.
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Jeffrey Crowley, a senior researcher at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute, said Bush is proposing ``a very different approach in comparison to other states.''

Although Florida and some others require patients to gain specific approval for some of the more costly drugs, Crowley said, those lists in other states are compiled by committees of pharmacists who consider cost only after they determine whether drugs have little difference in effect - as many prescriptions for heartburn do, for example.

``Florida officials, in contrast, are being driven very much by cost,'' Crowley said. ``They are less driven by clinical considerations.''

Bob Sharpe, a former Florida Medicaid director who leads the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, said the result is ``bad medicine.'' His group and others plan to lobby against the governor's plan in the legislative session that begins next week.

Bob Sharpe, a prime example of the sniveling naysayer, would have us waste money on discounted drugs simply to keep people alive.

An hour before dawn, Jamal Houston has just finished 30 minutes of inhaling a lung-clearing nebulizer and is halfway through a tube-fed liquid breakfast of protein shakes and a dozen drugs managing his cerebral palsy, AIDS, congestive heart trouble and asthma.

A nurse, beating cupped hands on Jamal's back to knock loose the fluid in his chest and nose, turns off a gospel TV show and pops in a videotape of Barney the dinosaur -- a favorite of the 9-year-old boy, whose perturbed moans give way to giggles and a broad smile.

Since birth, Jamal has survived thanks to Medicaid, a statefederal insurance program for the poor, elderly and disabled that pays almost all his costly medical bills. Though his is an extreme case, Jamal is just one of 2.3 million recipients in Florida, where one in eight people receive its benefits. Medicaid helps 27 percent of all Florida children and 44 percent of pregnant women, and pays about 66 percent of nursing home care.

Kill The Poor

The sun beams down on a brand new day
No more welfare tax to pay
Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light
Jobless millions whisked away
At last we have more room to play
All systems go to kill the poor tonight

Gonna
Kill kill kill kill Kill the poor:Tonight

Behold the sparkle of champagne
The crime rate's gone
Feel free again
O' life's a dream with you, Miss Lily White
Jane Fonda on the screen today
Convinced the liberals it's okay
So let's get dressed and dance away the night