This is an essential point to realize about the new [Medicare drug] benefit -- if youare eligible and don't sign up, you are charged 1% more every month youdon't sign up, for the rest of the time you're enrolled in Medicarepart D. That means if you wait a year, you will pay 12% higher than theaverage plan cost. If premiums rise, so will the amount you'repenalized. According to the Chicago Tribune, seniors who wait four years before signing up may end up paying almost 50 percent more for the rest of their lives.
And since the overwhelming majority of seniors(my grandparents included) took one look at the labyrinthine new plan and decided to ignore all future mailings on the subject, once the kinks are worked out and enrollment begins in earnest, they'll be stuck with terrible deals. Which'll make them not enroll. Which'll kill the program and require that this punitive measure is eventually lopped off in the more sensible benefit that replaces it.
Sometimes it seems that Republicans have decided our health care system needs massive overhaul and have implemented a sneaky plan to hasten its collapse. If so, they're doing excellent work.
