If you haven’t been following the news, the Medicare Part D drug benefit is turning out to be a disaster–millions of seniors aren’t getting their prescription drugs, for any number of reasons: they’re not listed in the computer, the computer is giving pharmacies wrong information about costs, or the computer systems just aren’t working at all. Pharmacies are on hold for 2-3 hours for one single patient, and states are declaring public health emergencies and paying for the drugs themselves. Recently, the President told insurers the system isn’t working, and that, at least temporarily, there needs to be price controls.

This is a brilliant system for Pharma. They practically wrote the bill, saying how great it would work, and now private insurers and the federal government, who have to implement it, take the blame for a crappy system. Bravo Pharma, bravo! Jolly good play there.

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