If there's a way to fuck shit up, Bush is your man

It's probably because I am unaffected by the Medicare prescription plan at this time that I hadn't thought of all its potential disastrous effects. However the Washington Post reports on one that should have been obvious but was little reported before the adoption of this disaster, its effect on the mentally ill:

'Threshold' came to the rescue of clients who couldn't get any medications or who, despite their pills, were in increasing distress because of all the confusion. It reimbursed several who'd mistakenly paid hundreds of dollars for pills that should have cost them a few dollars -- and replenished the supply of the client who had thrown his away.

"I'm not saying it's the federal government's fault he flushed his meds," Knoll said. "I'm saying it's the federal government's fault he couldn't get his meds. It's not surprising that people with mental illness respond in ways that people with mental illness respond."

Like many of you, I know several people who have mental illnesses such as bi-polar disorder that function quite well in the day-to-day world because of advances in psychiatric medicine (and let me now express on off-topic "fuck you very much" to Tom Cruise). However, when the medication these same folks are used to is altered, it can have gigantic impacts on themselves and their families, such is the delicate nature of their regimen. Sadly, many of them rely upon medicare for help because they are disproportionately on social security disability. For the government to come in and fuck with their regimen is inexcusable. They will suffer because of this, and in some cases people will die because of its effects.

But when it is reported, it will be treated by the media and society as the acts of some "crazy person", when a major contributor will have been the stupidity of this truly crazy and cruel scheme.

Since the prescription program made its debut Jan. 1, some of the estimated 2 million mentally ill Americans covered because they receive both Medicare and Medicaid have gone without the drugs that keep their delusions, paranoia, anxieties or stress in check. Mental health service providers and advocacy organizations nationwide say they worry that scores are at high risk of relapse. Numerous people have been hospitalized.