"Seniors protest cuts to coverage; State budget takes $10m from prescription plan" by Tara Ballenger, Globe Correspondent | July 10, 2009
Joan Barchard was among the seniors protesting the cuts to the state’s prescription coverage plan in Dorchester yesterday. About 30 members of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council took part in the protest. (Maisie Crow for The Boston Globe)
Ann Stewart, 85, was one of about 44,000 Bay State seniors who lost coverage because of cuts made to the Prescription Advantage program in October last year, when funding was cut from $57 million to $50 million.
Need $7 MILLION? I know where you can get that EASY!
Governor Guts State Services
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money
Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
Slow Saturday Special: Day at the Movies
How many times I gotta put 'em up?
Last week, Governor Deval Patrick signed a budget that cut another $10 million from the program for fiscal year 2010.
I would ASK Hollywood for it!!!
To protest the cuts, Stewart, along with about 30 other members of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, a statewide advocacy group, stood on all four corners of the busy intersection of Columbia Road and Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester yesterday....
Not that I'm knocking the effort and cause, but WHY do THEY GET PRINT, agenda-pushing Globe?
When the cuts from last fall went into effect in January, tens of thousand of seniors who had been receiving support from Prescription Advantage to pay their Medicare Part D copayments became ineligible for that benefit. Instead, they had to wait until the retail cost of their drugs exceeded $2,700 to get the extra help.
Carolyn Villers, executive director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, said that even though it is too late to influence the state budget, she hopes seniors will have a say in how the cuts are implemented and that the rally raises awareness about how the cuts affect real people in Massachusetts.
“The reality is, when people can’t afford the pills they need, they get very sick’’ and can end up in the hospital, said Villers.
Or, on the other hand, IF they take the pills they also get sick!
--more--"
Btw, couldn't the PROFIT-MAKING and PROFIT-HUNGRY PHARMACEUTICALS help out a bit, or.... ?
Of course, this protest was NOT worth a picture!
TEHRAN - Thousands of antigovernment demonstrators were attacked with batons and tear gas by security forces yesterday as they tried to gather around Tehran University for the first protests in about two weeks, defying warnings from the authorities that they would crush any demonstrations.
I'm tired of the one-sided bias of AmeriKa's newspapers, folks.
Just DAMN TIRED OF IT!
Here is WHY:
"Thousands" of protesters? Give me a break."
The protests were called to commemorate an attack on students at the university in 1999. The demonstrators are using such anniversaries and special occasions to rally people in public. Demonstrators and websites said the next possible date is the upcoming inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is expected next month. There are also several national and religious celebrations coming up in the months ahead. At the same time, the authorities also showed their determination to prevent such protests....
Yup, CLINGING to a FAILED COUP!
The capital had been abuzz with calls for a huge demonstration around Enghelab Square. On websites, in e-mails, and in fliers, there were calls to meet up along nine routes leading to the square for what seemed to be spontaneous gatherings.
No more Twitterers?
The government accuses foreign governments, media, and groups of organizing the protests....
It is a SHAME when the "enemy" is the one TELLING the TRUTH and it is OUR NEWSPAPERS that are LYING to us, Americans!!!
Please see my Iran labels for more from the last month or so.
