What a fiasco with the implementation of Medicare Part D. This has become a big story, which has shown the public the corruption of the Bush administration. The drug benefit was not designed in good faith, but to enrich insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry.

Just like the Katrina and the Iraqi reconstruction, the government took little or no preparation before the deadline to make sure things would run smoothly. As a result, phone lines are clogged, pharmacists and doctors have no idea what is going on – having been kept out of the loop – and seniors themselves are confused and angry.

Many senior citizens have yet to find out that the plan they’re in won’t cover the drugs they are on, or that they have been quietly and automatically disenrolled from superior private coverage.

Later this year, a significant portion of beneficiaries will have entered the “doughnut holes” and will be paying a monthly premium to receive zero benefits.

The Bush administration has called the above situation its “signature domestic achievement.” I disagree.

Carl Beckett, Mechanic Falls