The Politics Blog » The Scourge of Bushism is Worsening

The Scourge of Bushism is Worsening

By Scott Rose on January 21, 2006

Unconscionable Bushism in action is plain to read about on the front page of today’s New York Times.
An article titled “Medicare Woes Take High Toll on Mentally Ill” describes how changes in Medicare are causing patients with serious, persistent mental illnesses to be deprived of their medicines.
When such patients do not have their medicines, they invariably must be hospitalized. Most of them don’t have health insurance.
The gravest concern in this matter is, of course, the well-being of the patients with mental illnesses.
But the economic side of the question, too, merits consideration. When these patients, deprived of their medicines, must go to the hospital and can not pay for the hospitalization, it is ultimately the taxpayer who has to pick up the enormous tab, which could have been avoided by putting out the relatively small amount of money for the medications.
W. was remiss in not thinking about the plight of the mentally ill when he promoted his Medicare “improvements.” But Bushism in this matter is not limited to the 2003 bill alone. As per today’s Times: “At least 24 states have taken emergency action to pay for prescription drugs if people cannot obtain them by using the new Medicare drug benefit. Florida is not among those states.
It defies all belief that Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who could not do enough for Terri Schiavo in her persistent vegetative state, is not lifting a finger to help people who can live relatively normal lives if they have their medications, but must be hospitalized in the greatest distress if they do not.