"If you are caught in that donut hole you will be disappointed and start pressing your members of Congress to do something about it."

That bit of advice was given two years ago by Gail Wilensky, PhD, a health analyst with Project HOPE, a former Medicare administrator who also advised President Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign.

Dr. Wilensky was right.  And now is the time for all of us in Bucks County, PA to show up on July 29 to tell our congressman, Mike Fitzpatrick (R), that we want to see Part D fixed today.

And it's not just the Donut Hole we want fixed.  PA Action, the sponsor of the event, wants the following sensible fixes made to Part D:

The Lobby Day to fix Medicare Part D at Rep. Fitzpatrick's Oxford Valley Mall office is, of course, about asking the congressman to make specific fixes to the disastrous prescription drug program.  But it's also a celebration.

On Saturday, at 9:15AM, we'll be celebrating Medicare's 41st birthday.  Over those four decades Medicare has been the model of efficiency:

... The typical private health insurer spends about 10 percent of its outlays on administrative costs, including lavish salaries, extensive marketing budgets, and the expense of weeding out sick people. Medicare spends about 2 percent to 3 percent. And Social Security spends just 1 percent. Even low-cost mutual funds have operating costs greater than that.

That was before Part D, with its built-in sops to the big-donor insurance and pharmaceutical industries came online.  But setting that horrible plan aside, the ideal and the reality of Medicare deserves to be celebrated.  So celebrate we will.

What we know:

Medicare Part D does not allow the government (American taxpayers) to have a negotiating role when it comes to dealing with the pharmaceutical industry.  

Since 1991 state Medicaid programs have benefited from "best price" rebates from pharmaceutical companies to be sure that Medicaid doesn't pay more for drugs than what commercial insurers are able to negotiate.

To find out what we won't know, let's turn to the NYT story, A Windfall from Shifts to Medicare, from Tuesday:

It's not fair to say that nobody is benefiting from the disastrous prescription drug benefit otherwise known as Medicare Part D.  According to the New York Times, there are some very clear winners from the plan:

The countdown continues.

11 DAYS TO MEDICARE D-DAY ON MEDICARE'S B-DAY.

Because today was taken up with on-the-ground organizing, this countdown is going to make it just under the wire.   Unfortunately for many seniors their Part D wire keeps moving as the catastrophic coverage threshold which sets the opposite end of the donut hole rises.   This means that more and more Medicare recipients will be trapped in the donut  hole for longer periods and will have smaller chances of escaping before the whole process starts over again the next year.  

If you live in Bucks County, PA, you can help.

The countdown continues.

12 DAYS TO MEDICARE D-DAY ON MEDICARE'S B-DAY

Numbers, numbers everywhere:  There are only 12 days until the big Lobby Day event at Rep. Fitzpatrick's Langhorne office (Oxford Vally Mall - Google Map). On the weekend of 7/29, Medicare will be 41 years old.  That day will mark 100 days before Election Day.  We need 100 constituents to show up on the 29th to ask Rep. Fitzpatrick to do his job and work tirelessly to fix the disaster that is Part D.

Here are some more numbers to think about.  Thanks to Medicare Part D: (from the Alliance for Retired Americans)  

Medicare Part D is an unmitigated disaster.  PA Action, a non-partisan political advocacy group is devoting resources to a campaign dedicated to fixing Medicare Part D in very specific ways.  I recently started working as a field organizer on PA Action's campaign to fix Part D.

On July 29th, we're sponsoring a Lobby Day at Rep. Fitzpatrick's (PA-08) Langhorne office.  One of the promotional tools is a daily countdown to the event (D-Day on Medicare's B-Day).  It's a reminder not only of how many days are left until the lobby event but also of what's wrong with Medicare Part D and the specific, common sense solutions we propose to fix it.

I'll be posting the countdown here every day until the morning of July 29th.  If you live in Bucks County and want the chance to talk to your congressman about the important issue of fixing Medicare's prescription drug benefit, please get to the event.  It should be fun.