highline56 op ed

There are a lot of variables to the new Medicare drug plan, but the decision process should be fairly straightforward, and certainly not stressful or worrisome. This will be three posts, each with a simple step in the process. First, this is about how much to credit what you read in the newspapers. Next will be on the Sudoku process. Last will be on horseshoes and hand grenades. If any emails show up indicating anybody is reading this stuff, we can go into the actual details of the plan.

Here is the opening quote in today's NYT article. "I have a Ph.D., and i'ts too complicated to suit me," said William Q. Beard, 73, a retired chemist.... " Mr. Beard was interviewed ... where he and 100 other members of an adult Sunday school class recently received a two hour explanation of the drug benefit from a state insurance counselor.

Let's look at the reporting process. The editor decides it's time for another front page article on how complicated the drug plan is, and out go the reporters to get quotable quotes. You can't just go down the street asking people that look old. You will get stuff like "off the porch, sonny, or Fang here gets out", or "huh?". Worse, you get the nice old lady who insists you come in for cookies, and shoot the afternoon. No, you have to go where there is a big meeting of people who are over 65 and already think they need help figuring it out.

Now put yourself in the place of one of those seniors, we will say Bob. A cute reporter who looks like she is about 15 walks up and asks you if the session was hard to understand. Your own grandkids don't come around much, and you wouldn't mind seeing your name in the paper, so you chat her up. If you say "nah, piece of cake" or call her "Toots" she moves on to the next person. So you say "glad you asked, Alison, I am a retired nuclear physicist with my pharmocology license so I can work in my brother's drug store on weekends, and I just cannot grasp any of this. That's B-O-B, Alison. I don't know why the government made this so impossible." Now your friends will stop you on the street with "Hey Bob, was that you in the New York Times?".

OK, we are past that mental hurdle. The next step is Sudoku.

Chuck Cooper