Big Surprise

Interesting and disturbing, though wholey unsurprising article from the Times "Investigators Find Medicare Drug Plans Often Give Incomplete and Incorrect Data".

Insurers failed to provide complete and accurate cost information more than 70 percent of the time, investigators said. For people taking large numbers of prescription drugs, the disparity between the stated cost and the actual cost was often thousands of dollars a year, more than $6,000 in one case.

The response?

Insurance counselors said many beneficiaries were unfamiliar with details of the program, so their questions were imprecise or confused.

Right! That's why they are calling you, to get answers! Well, maybe the administration who conceived of this convoluted plan will be more understanding.

The Bush administration took issue with the report and defended the work of the plans. The administration said the auditors should have asked different questions or should have phrased the questions differently. In an interview on Monday, Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that one question posed to insurers was “unclear and inaccurate” and that two were “not appropriate” because they required the service representatives to provide more information than the government required.

Mmmm hmmm, because seniors and others who are calling these companies for information should inherently understand in what way they should form their questions, and what phrases they should and should not use. So listen up Medicare beneficiaries!! DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT ask any "inappropriate" questions, and you'd better be accurate in your lack of knowledge. The government just won't stand for anything less.