I think we should start naming Tsunamis, like we do Hurricanes.
A big one is probably going to hit the East coast Monday.
Being “old” and on SS, I took my Medicare Prescription Registration confirmation number, which I obtained weeks ago by registering for the program early, down to my local pharmacist today, to see how well this program has been bench-tested. After all it has been 2+ years since the program was approved, and you would think, based on various speeches and appeals to senior citizen groups, that everything would be in place for this Sunday “kickoff”.
Well the 14 digit confirmation number on my policy from AARPPERSCRIPTIONRx did the druggist NO GOOD.
Now if this was a mom/pop drugstore I could understand, but this was Walmart/SamsClub and their computers could find nothing to reference my confirmation number with. Of course AARP could not be contacted because call volumes were “heavy” due to people signing up for the program at the last minute, and WalMart HQ in Bentonville AR had NO CLUE who the insurance writer for AARP was.
If you are not eligible for this program, you should still go to the Medicare website and do a trial search for a suitable program. Anyone expecting the majority population of the target group that this program is for, to be able to navigate through the maze of confusion on the website mentioned, is nuts. User friendly is an alien term here, especially when you “formulary” (what the hell is that term) 10 prescriptions that are not unusual or exotic, and find that there is no program that will work for all of them. For example, no program will fund Valium or its generic. The typical drugs that elderly people use, BP medications, Arthritis medications, pain medications, blood thinners, and the eventually mandatory Nexium due to the destruction of the stomach lining by the previously mentioned drugs are not acceptable for partial support funding.
Some of this basic trial test ground work should have been performed and referral files in place by now, for a program as grand as this Social Security Improvement Prescription Plan has been portrayed.
I believe that “Tsunami George” will be Bald, White, and Blue, in reference to the majority of bobbing heads that will be visible at most of the pharmacies around the country Monday morning. Shortly after the wave strikes the drugstores, it will impact the telephones and the “letters to the editor” section of innumerable newspapers.
My pharmacist told me he is thinking of reporting off sick Monday because he is invisioning a line of people at least 20 deep all day, and no one available to answer the phone at the insurance underwriters locations for the policies that have been purchased by those of us eligible for the program.
If Goerge hasn’t been drinking lately, he will be, by Monday evening.