Why Don't Those Drug Cards Actually Save Anyone Any Money?

You may be wondering whether the highly-touted Medicare drug cards are actually going to save you any money, as the President has repeatedly promised. The fact is, they probably won't. Why would the Administration create a program that doesn't actually help consumers, but would enrich drug companies? Maybe its because the provisions creating the drug cards were written by a long-time Bush crony from a Texas company Bush himself used to own stock in:

"A Texas company owned by a campaign contributor and former business associate of President Bush could profit if Medicare endorses its drug card program under guidelines set by legislation the president signed into law...David Halbert, a longtime friend and contributor to several of Bush's campaigns, helped craft the portion of the Medicare bill that allows seniors to buy discount drug cards they can use to purchase medicine from May of 2004 until 2006...Halbert's company, Irving, Texas-based AdvancePCS, is one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit management companies and would be well-positioned to compete for Medicare's endorsement to issue the discount cards...Bush had been an investor in a Halbert-owned predecessor company to AdvancePCS, called Advance Paradigm... Halbert contributed to Bush campaigns from his 1994 gubernatorial race through his White House bid in 2000."
- Boston Globe, 12/12/03

"Public records give no precise amount of how much he earned on the Advance stock sale, but Bush's financial disclosure form made public last year shows that he realized a capital gain, or profit, of as much as $1 million on the sale" of the same firm that he allowed to write portions of the Medicare bill, and who will now benefit from the drug card provisions.
- Center for Public Integrity, 3/7/04