What Happens When You Design Horrid Policy

From the New York Times:

With tens of thousands of people unable to get medicines promised by Medicare, the Bush administration has told insurers that they must provide a 30-day supply of any drug that a beneficiary was previously taking, and it said that poor people must not be charged more than $5 for a covered drug.

The actions came after several states declared public health emergencies, and many states announced that they would step in to pay for prescriptions that should have been covered by the federal Medicare program.

Nice how disastrous policy is what finally gets the Bush Administration to go single payer. Too bad it's only temporary.

Again, I can't stress enough that this situation was completely avoidable. It was also completely predictable. When you design a benefit that makes seniors (who aren't particularly adept at using the internet) choose between dozens of plans, covering hundreds of different drugs, participating at a handful of pharmacies, you get chaos. And chaos prevailed.

Update: Health Care Renewal has a laundry list of Part D problems worth checking out.