In the best case, it could be three months from now. But it could take longer.
The governor is stepping in to provide a system until the Medicare problems are fixed. We're not taking (the Medicare prescription drug plan) over. We're providing a payer of last resort.
It is critical we reach these million people in the next 100 days.
We don't think it's fair. The state should be getting a 10 percent savings. That's what Congress said when it passed the program and the president said when he signed the bill.
The numbers are lower than we had anticipated, ... but they appear to be up slightly at the beginning of February.
We're concerned about a loss of physicians. We're asking people to hold in there for a year.
Anytime you're going to move a million people from their drug coverage on one day, it's going to be rough. These are the people who are the most vulnerable with the most health conditions.
The federal government has the ability to resolve these issues now. They can implement an automated system. We called upon the federal government to do that. However, they have not.
The federal government has done a lot, but this is so large and complicated and affects so many people that we are very concerned. All of the systems will have to work perfectly and in very high volume for everything to work out.
Where the rubber is really going to hit the road is Jan. 2 in the local pharmacies.
