Linkmeister

Join this HMO or else!

Half-full or half-empty?

Administration officials said last week that Mr. Bush was considering a proposal that would require Medicare beneficiaries to join some type of government-subsidized private health insurance plan to obtain coverage of prescription drugs.

Under the proposal, as described in government documents, drug benefits would be available to elderly people who enrolled in private plans, like health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations, and there would be "no prescription drug coverage" for people in traditional fee-for-service Medicare.

Now, I know a Medicare recipient, and I know full well how being forced to join an HMO to get prescription drugs would go down with her. This dog won't hunt, at least not if the Democrats and the gutsier Republicans have any brains.

Mr. Herbert expresses my doubts about Mr. Bush very well. Bush talks the talk, but then reduces or even ignores the funding necessary to follow up on his promises. Example: the states were promised billions of dollars for Homeland Security; they've barely gotten any money at all. I didn't hear a word in the SOTU about helping the states respond to their respective budget crises. And why is no one asking "what good do federal tax reductions do if state taxes go up at the same time? Isn't the net effect no difference at all?"