corrente

Since Ted Koppel and the rest of our betters have decided that "boring" stuff like Medicare is barely worth covering, it's left to folks like Rivka of the new blog Respectful of Otters to help us understand the screwing over we're getting on so many levels. Check out Rivka's post on the ramifications of Medicare "reform" on HIV treatment here.

What all of this means, in the end, is that the cost of prescription drugs for people with HIV will be pushed back onto state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. And ADAPs are already so overloaded and underfunded that many states arerationing access to AIDS drugs - including, thanks to Gov. Schwarzenegger, California. From now on, in California as in poorer states such as West Virginia, new HIV patients won't be able to get their drugs paid for by the state until an existing patient dies or gets private health insurance. And that'sbefore all the Medicare/Medicaid patients get kicked back into ADAP.

It's an unmitigated disaster.

Another unmitigated disaster from a miserable failure. Did I mention that Bush is unelectable?