Many people in the USA are beginning to feel that the Medicare Reform effort should have focused on the elderly rather than political gain and helping big business.

When the Medicare Act came into being last December the Republicans expected cheers and fanfares - they have not come.

Although the legislation was billed as the biggest reform in Medicare’s history, both Republicans and Democrats may have been motivated by election strategy and pharmaceutical company profits than a real desire to help America’s elderly population.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cost of this reform which will bring about more prescription drug coverage for American seniors would be at the most $400 billion over a ten year period.

Amazingly, now that the Bill is an Act (is law) the estimates, according to the Bush team, are around $534 billion.

Most of America’s elderly have no idea what the law means exactly - put more kindly, they do not understand it. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation 60% of America’s elderly do not understand the law.

If the elderly population do not understand a new law that is supposed to help them, it cannot be good news, surely! American’s elderly are up in arms at Congress for embarking on a reform process which ends up more confusing than it was before.

I have heard of the saying ’If it works don’t fix it.’ I have never heard of the expression ’If it does not work, make it worse’.

The American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) is also in the firing line. They supported the measures and are being blamed for being part of the confusion.

People are saying that the AARP should have held its ground, it should have said the motivation for this reform was political, it should not have supported it as it was.

Bill Novelli, Head of AARP, wrote to 16 pharmaceutical companies in the USA asking them to bring down the prices of their prescription drugs.

The main problem with Medicare before was the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly (among others). People cannot understand how it is that the AARP, which represents the elderly, could endorse a reform which did not sort out this problem to the satisfaction of its members.

People say this reform will make pharmaceutical companies even richer than they already are - and all at the expense of the hard-working taxpayer. Of course, the charge here is that the Bush administration is taking care of its big business friends rather than the people they are supposed to represent.

The Administration is now being forced to say that a revision will take place, though not this year as there are elections. However, by saying that there will be a revision means that they realise it is a bit of a mess.

So, America’s elderly will have to wait even longer.