You Feel Lucky, Punk?
Medicare is planning a lottery later this year for people with cancer, multiple sclerosis and several other diseases. For the 50,000 winners, the government will start helping pay for their medicine, but more than 450,000 others must wait until 2006.
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However, the law limits the new program to 50,000 people and $500 million, at least $200 million of which must be spent on cancer drugs. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Medicare recipients without prescription drug coverage are eligible.
“There’ll be a lottery to be chosen as one of 50,000 lucky individuals,” Thompson said.
Medicare will accept applications for the lottery from July 6 to Sept. 30, and will randomly select 25,000 cancer patients and 25,000 people with the other illnesses.
People who apply by Aug. 16 will be eligible for an early draw, with coverage beginning Sept. 1.
Sorry, honey, you didn’t win the big LIFE LOTTERY, brought to you by the Go-Fuck-Yourself Team of Bush and Dick. Try again next time on The Bill Bennett Big Spin. If you live that long.
Of course, you can’t blame the Bush administration. We just don’t have the money to provide life saving drugs to just everybody, fergawdsake. We have to make some tough choices here. Sacrifice. Tighten our belts. After all, Dick ‘n Bush have to scrape up several billion to pay Halliburton to ship fuel to Iraq:
Shortly before the Pentagon awarded a division of oil services contactor Halliburton Co. a sole-source contract to help restore Iraqi oil fields last year, an Army Corps of Engineers official wrote an e-mail saying the award had been “coordinated” with the office of Vice President Cheney, Halliburton’s former chief executive.
The March 5, 2003, e-mail, disclosed over the weekend by Time magazine, noted that Douglas Feith, a senior Pentagon official, had signed off on the deal “contingent on informing WH [the White House] tomorrow.”
“We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w VP’s office,” it continued.
Three days later, Halliburton subsidiary KBR was granted the contract, which was worth as much as $7 billion, according to information on the Army Corps of Engineers Web site. The first job under the contract was putting out oil fires. It was later expanded to include shipping fuel to Iraq, which led to Pentagon auditor charges that KBR had overbilled the government.
Sorry little Mikey. Guess it’s just not your day. Try to hang until 2006, ok? We’ll see if we can get you some chemo then. Here’s an aspirin. Drink your kool-aid.