perfidy

It occurs to me that the question of medical benefits for older people is thornier than I thought. I stand by my comments of yesterday, but a conversation with my sage and oracular wife has reminded me that the Medicare bill will do some concrete good. Namely, it will allow poorer senior citizens without many assets or good insurance to afford and gain access to the drugs that keep them alive. If they're taking say 6 pills a day, and don't have decent coverage, the expense can be crippling. Importation from Canada can help that group of seniors afford BOTH food AND medicine. Unless you are a true Social Darwinian, you cannot fail to see that this is good for them.

Of course, most Boomers and Greatest Generationers are already set up with good insurance and prescription coverage, and probably won't bother with the extra bother of mail-ordering drugs from Canada. A good insurance plan gives you $5/$10/$15 coverage on perscriptions, and there is no conceivable benefit to going to Canada instead of Rite Aid. So, it's possible that the effect of drug importation will be less than I thought, but it remains to be seen how many people take advantage of it.

The damnedest thing about healthcare legislation is that even the most venal and grasping bill contains a nugget of good intentions that will concretely help people that need it badly. Makes it kind of hard to work up a white-hot denunciatory rage, I tell you what. Why can't people just be evil and motives clear? Dang!