Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Republican Welfare Queen Poised To Become Governor Of Florida.

I've written about Rick Scott before. As a joke. Not quite a year and half ago Scott was just some rich clown running ads against President Obama's healthcare proposals. Ads that said any solution to the problem had to be built on the pillars of “choice, competition, accountability and personal responsibility"

One of the reasons Scott is so rich is because when he ran Columbia/HCA, one of the largest for profit hospital chains in the country, Columbia/HCA was ripping off Medicaid and Medicare to the tune of over a billion dollars. The company eventually settled with the government for over $1.7 billion, and Scott was ousted by his own board of directors for his role in the affair. He then decided to show how accountable and responsible he was by leading a lavish lifestyle in Naples, Florida. That's where we left Rick Scott a little over a year ago. A fool who surely would never be taken seriously ever again.

Last Tuesday Rick Scott won the Republican nomination to become Governor of Florida. I am not making that up. Lesson learned. from now on I do not stop kicking these fuckers until they are good and dead and buried and even then it might not be a bad idea to dig up the body and drive a few wooden stakes through their heart.

But, can I ask you something? If you're one of my colleagues who never hesitates to talk shit about the medicaid customers whose business puts dollars in your paycheck, who will never fail to judge a woman on welfare driving a late model car when for all you know she might have had to flee in that vehicle with the kids to escape a husband who was beating the shit out of her, why are you not outraged that Rick Scott is not only not in jail, but has a good chance at becoming chief executive of the nations fourth most populous state? Why would you treat Rick Scott better if he came in your store than you would the baby momma you think might be trying to game the system for some free claritin? Is it a math problem? Do you not realize $1,700,000,000 is the equivalent of around 34 million prescriptions you deem not worthy to be dispensed? THE AVERAGE PHARMACY COULD WORK FOR 169 YEARS BEFORE IT WOULD FILL ENOUGH PRESCRIPTIONS TO GENERATE THE AMOUNT OF REVENUE THAT RICK SCOTT'S COMPANY STOLE FROM MEDICAID AND MEDICARE.

But the real problem is that baby momma according to you. When she comes in your store she gets a sneer and contempt. If Rick Scott comes in he would get a "yes sir" and maybe even your vote.

Why is that? I posed that question in Drug Topics awhile back as well, and never got a decent answer. Because none of you have the balls to say it. Evidently I'm just gonna have to say it for you you fucking cowards.

It's because if Rick Scott came in your store, he'd look like you, or at least the kind of person you want to be. He'd be dressed well. He wouldn't speak with an accent but would speak with impeccable grammar. You wouldn't be scared of his mannerisms or find his culture threatening. You might even be intimidated by the air of authority someone who plays in his league would be sure to have. You would perceive Rick Scott to be above you on the ladder of society, so you would immediately fall into your assigned place.

The baby momma you would percieve as below you however. Different and beneath you, so woe onto that woman. This isn't about taxpayer dollars at all and you know it. You are at best a coward and at worst an outright racist. I'll bet you anything when you talk about that baby momma behind her back you find a way to let people know her race if she's not white.

You make me sick. And you're about to get the governor you deserve.

38 comments:

woolywoman said...

Oh, right, this is why I like you. Rock on.

ThatDeborahGirl said...

My darling, my drug monkey, will you please marry me?

I am going to pass this post on to every single person I know. I may even put it on a t-shirt in my screen printing class next term.

midwest woman said...

I work for " principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true" corporation also for profit that paid a 900 million fine for stealing from medicare. They put Jeb Bush on their board of directors. Something in the waters other than oil in Florida?

jen said...

Too true. Pretty much the same reason why we don't scorn the old folks who engage in fraudulent "estate planning" to pass large-to-huge amounts of money to their kids before they go into a nursing home and get Medicaid to pay the $5,000/month-or-more nursing home bill...

Pharmacy Mike said...

I wish people could understand what you've written here, but I'm just about done believing it will ever happen.

Somehow stealing $1.7 billion from the government is FAR better than getting a small chunk of aid, so you don't die in the street.

Honestly, I hate most people because most people have an inability to think rationally. If you call them on it, then you get in a long argument, and your logic inevitably gets drowned out by the chorus of morons, racists, and bigots who all agree that YOU are wrong.

I wish I could be like George Carlin. He said that he stopped viewing himself as part of this species and eventually just became an observer to the comedy of its irrational behavior. He could be that outsider though because he had a talent that allowed him not to work for anyone. People paid him to be himself. I, on the other hand, am stuck working in this world. I can't be an outsider because I'm entrenched in all this stupidity.

And with that... it's off to work. I wonder how long it will be until someone makes a Medicaid customer comment. I give it 20 minutes.

Jason said...

"You would perceive Rick Scott to be above you on the ladder of society, so you would immediately fall into your assigned place....You make me sick."

Amen, brother. For all our talk about freedom and democracy, we certainly behave like a nation of serfs, don't we?

r0t said...

"A rare hate mail worthy of response has rolled in. I'l publish it along with its appropriate destruction when I am not fog brained from work"

I'm waiting, D.M. Waiting ever so patiently. Right over here.

SCPantera said...

I was going to post this a few blog entries back (for "The New York Times Joins In A Cruel Joke On The Profession."), but it rolls up nicely with this post also.

Fark.com has a number of tropes that center around the wealth of bullshit often found in print media (who are desperately trying to pad column inches and hang on to readers) and TV network news (who are desperately trying to pad out slow news days and hang on to viewers). One of these is the annual stories that get recycled every so often and are basically meaningless.

There's also a trope that has to do with the consistent river of batshit insane stuff that comes out of Florida. I occasionally get a taste of this firsthand; my wife works for a company that does telephone relay services for deaf people. Due to how the network is run, she'll sometimes have days where she does nothing but take calls from Florida and it's on days like that when she comes home in a must-drown-the-world-in-alcohol haze oft described here.

I can get her to break down in tears on command by joking about wanting to move to Florida.

was1 said...

Oh, Drug Monkey, you are the only enlightened white guy on the planet. Those of us lesser beings must strive to be more like you. How you know what's in our hearts and minds is a mystery worthy of the Devine.

Perhaps the problem lies not with individuals who scam the system but with a system that allows and even encourages itself to be scammed. When baby momma is rewarded time and again for popping them out like a Pez dispenser and there is nobody insisting or even suggesting that some modest level of responsibility is called for, I see that as a problem.

You alluded to a racial bias among those of us who are the great, ignorant masses. I heard on CNN this weekend that 72% of black babies are born to single mothers. I guess that's my fault. If only I could control my hate, more black boys would keep their dicks in their pants and more black girls would use birth control.

My sons are all named Leroy so when I say "Leroy! Clean up the room." They all clean up the room. But if I only want one of them, I call him by his last name.

was1 said...

Oh, by the way... welcome back. I like your reality based rants better than the forays into the dark recesses of your imaginary world. Keep it real, brother.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

was....now tell me a joke based on stereotypes of Rick Scott. The fact you didn't, and probably never have, illustrates my point perfectly. Thanks.

Rot...it's still coming. I had a lot of paid writing to get out of the way this weekend, which means the free stuff gets put on the back burner. Continue to be patient.

Từ Thanh Giác said...

Here in California Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of HP, is running for A US Senate seat. My friend and hundreds of others got their pink slip from her on Christmas Eve. It was a” Surprise don't come back after the holiday shut down”
Every year the TV stations run Scrooge films, yet the stupid public doesn’t make the connection. The modern Tiny Tim is actually campaigning for Scrooge.

jen said...

Perhaps the problem lies not with individuals who scam the system but with a system that allows and even encourages itself to be scammed.

Um, let me get this straight. The problem isn't the guy who stole $1.7 billion, it's the computer systems that let him? I'm sure you meant "systems" more broadly, but this guy knew that what he was doing was wrong, and was a violation of the rules, and was theft from the taxpayers...

There were rules against what he did, but the computers didn't catch it soon enough, and various administrations have been understaffing and underprioritizing auditing and enforcement staff for years.

Should we have had measures in place to stop it from happening? Yes. Doesn't change the fact that this a$$hole stole $1.7 billion from us, collectively.

Pharmacy Mike said...

Was1, you missed the point entirely.

The point wasn't that some people fraud Medicaid. The point was that so many people care so deeply about people getting a few tax payer dollars here and there that we think of them as the scum of the earth. However, when a rich white guy frauds the system for $1.7 billion, he can run for governor of Florida and have a good chance at winning.

Do you think the total dollar amount of all the people that scam Medicaid in your state even comes out to $1.7 billion?

That's the state of the world today though. For whatever reason, the richer you are when you commit a crime, the less of a crime it really is. A poor kid stealing $200 worth of stereo equipment needs to be locked up in prison for his crime. A rich white guy steals over a BILLION dollars, and he does no jail time. In fact, he basically got a slap at on the wrist, and was given leave to take early retirement... probably with the money he scammed out of other people.

I'd like to see that poor stereo thief run for governor.

Davey said...

Man this strand is loaded with genius.

Drug Monkey, can you be my preceptor for my 4th year rotations?

pillroller said...

You got to love Florida they never cease to amaze me. Maybe if we get lucky another real big chunk of greenland glacier will fall off and Florida will be the new Atlantis.

Jeremy said...

Can we not have it both ways? Why does resenting being handed a stack of prescriptions for ferrous sulfate/prenatal vitamins/loratadine/ibuprofen or the Medicaid patient who comes in all the time to get prescriptions filled... two weeks late mean that we can't also get angry about this guy?

belovedparrot said...

I love you, Drug Monkey.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post. I have being feeling very bitter lately when I ring up welfare people (non hispanic white, I'd like to point out) who have no copay (allegedly because they can't afford even a measly $1 copay) and then proceed to buy Monster drinks or an $8 pack of Matchbox cars. I realize this is peanuts compared to this jackass and agree he should be in jail BUT that doesn't change the fact that welfare needs to be overhauled. I think TAP had a great post on the dangers of so called "free" meds. If these patients had to pay just $1 per script, I wonder how much money would be saved by them not refilling scripts they don't need (the lovely "Just fill all the ones with refills"). I agree there are people who need assistance and there are those who abuse it, my husband works with a women who has an iphone and $200/month cell phone bill but gets daycare assistance for 3 of her kids and just had another baby---if we keep supporting these people they will keep having babies even though they KNOW they can't afford it! It is INSANE!

Anonymous said...

Why ask why? Why do we bag on welfare recipients and not the scum bag candidate for gov? Why do we vote for Republicans when they hand us back room deals like Medicare Part D and lower medicaid reimbursements? How can we say Arizona's illegal immigration law is crap and that we can't enforce the letter of the law then invoke the letter of the law concerning the ground zero mosque? I agree with George Carlin, we are better off just watching this crazy shit.

Anonymous said...

I hate people who think that if you're receiving state aid you shouldn't buy an occasional hydrating beverage while shopping, and your kids shouldn't have toys, and you shouldn't have new clothes or fresh food. It's this idea that poor people SHOULD be miserable, and their kids should be miserable. Nothing they have should be good or valuable.

Health insurance, if your job doesn't offer it, costs upwards of $150 a month for one person, and you still have to have at least $5,000 for the deductible-- for a deductible that is reasonable when you're living paycheck to paycheck, you're looking at well over $200. Daycare for a toddler or infant is over $600 per month PER CHILD (the average is almost $700). For a preschooler, it's still $500. Daycare alone, for one child, costs half of a month's minimum wage.

Then consider that Medicaid and Medicare don't cover birth control (thanks, Republicans). Thus, the woman who is living paycheck to paycheck can fork over several hundred dollars (from her paycheck that's already gone to rent and daycare) for a reliable long-term form of birth control, or try to juggle taking a daily pill, which she may not always be able to get. She often is a victim of emotional or physical abuse and can't advocate for condom use in her relationships. Meanwhile she needs a phone because you can't get a job without a reliable line, but she moves every 4 months to another, cheaper apartment and sometimes she can't make her phone bills, so it's cheaper to just have a cell phone. But it does add up, even though she got her iphone off the back of a truck because at least a stolen phone doesn't fall apart after a month.

But clearly, she should somehow make that minimum wage from two part-time jobs with no benefits stretch to cover three children's daycare, health insurance, and her own birth control, or alternatively she should live a nun's life of poverty and chastity, deeply contemplating her sin of being poor, and deny her children anything that might make the experience of growing up poor more stimulating and bearable. Because it's their fault too.

midwest woman said...

off post here but are you going to publish your response to the email you referenced on twitter?

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

midwest,

it's coming....stuff sometimes hangs out on my "blog to do list" for awhile.....

TheAngryPharmacist said...

Actually if Rick Scott came into my store I wouldnt know him from Adam. I'd treat him the same as everyone else who didnt have their 10 children tearing apart my shelves or screaming so loud I cant hear myself think.

If he said "Hi! Im Rick Scott a rich politician" i'd make some smart ass joke about letting the hard working construction guy / migrant worker ahead of him because (unlike a politician) he actually has a job to do. Politicians are all fucking liars and thieves, and I'm surprise you even gave this douche air-time on your site.

If Rick Scott was a dick and pitched a fit, then he gets the same treatment as if you came into my store and pitched a fit over something stupid. If he brought his kids in who tore apart my shelves he'd get yelled at just like everyone else.

So I guess i'm a "coward and an outright racist" for talking shit on people not on how they look, but how they treat people who (in the end) are trying to help them live a better life. Heaven forbid us as society demand that some people have some personal responsiblity and accountability.

Better steal some lactulose from work, I think all that booze finished off your liver.

PS: I'd love to see Rick Scott get his ass thrown in jail and stripped from everything he has. God knows if you or I (or any "moral" non-politician) think about doing something like this we'd lose everything.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

Angry,

I don't believe you.

I've been at this over 20 years now, and have seen how the medicaid people get treated. I've seen the look on the prissy white boy faces when the most humble, shy, well mannered woman who left her kids at home hands them a medicaid card. I've seen how the billing method of a shithead customer always seems to work its way into the after action report.

Race as well. If a shithead customer happens to be black or Latino, that always seems to get mentioned regardless of its relevance to the customers shitheadness.

After a career spent in the ghetto, I work in a den of affluence these days, and trust me, there is no shortage of shitheads here. Funny how people never mention how the irate customer was white though, or complain about having to handle their hundred dollar credit card transaction, which I'll remind you, is worth the same as a hundred dollar payment from medicaid.

By the way, you do know your profit margin on those ibuprofen/benadryl medicaid prescriptions your type seems to hate so much is way better than on a nexium claim from blue cross? Yes? There'$ a rea$on chain$ love ghetto $tores $o much.

It's possible you're telling the truth, and if so I would direct some of your anger at the generation of white boys who I've witnessed adopt one tone in public and the complete opposite when they perceived themselves to be surrounded by friendlies. Because that's pretty much all I've seen over the last 20 years. Because at first glance I can pass for one of their friendlies, which is like being some sort of spy sometimes.

I don't believe you.

TheAngryPharmacist said...

Yes, I know damn well how much I made from those Ibuprofen/Tylenol suspension/Pedialyte prescriptions. I'm the one who fights so I can get over my cost on them. I make shit from the local medicaid plan here on that stuff, to the tune of $1.25 and the only reason I havent dropped them is because kids wouldn't get their medication. Aww, yes, TAP does have a heart.

Amazing how stories regarding asshat customers (that I hear) never have the race attached. Mothers with 10 kids with the escalade could very well be any race. If there is a race attached obviously I care enough to remember it. Guess that makes me a racist?

What about the prissy look on the mexican and black employees when they see people of the same skin tone getting benefits that they dont qualify for because they wake their asses up every morning to come to work? I guess only the "prissy white boy" opinion matters in this case.

You need to leave your white single-malt-scotch suburbia and come to the fact that the most racist and bigoted people that come into my store aren't white people. Drink more scotch and maybe you'll believe me.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

"You need to leave your white single-malt-scotch suburbia"

You mean go back to working the graveyard shift in a store with over 90% medi-cal customers? I don't see why, from what I hear not much has changed. Even though I do kinda miss it.

Medi-Cal's dispensing fee is $7.25 per claim. That is $7.25 of pure fucking profit, because you should be paying next to nothing for house brand OTC's.

Which means next to no inventory carrying expense. Slap a label on it type Rx's help keep down labor costs as well. Contrast that with the $200 med you kept on your shelf for 2 months to get a $1.50 dispensing fee, and I'll say again, you'll see why the chains love ghetto stores.

As far as the rest, again, it's not what I see my friend. The day I hear the need to mention Blue Cross in a shithead customer story will be the day I start to believe you.

First of the month's not as bad as it used to be. At least the Social Security checks don't all come out on the 3rd anymore..

TheAngryPharmacist said...

Read my post again. This isn't MediCal, its a local (county) managed medicaid plan. Plus I dont get "house" brand OTC products because I'm not a corpo-monster with a corpo-brand. I pay 0.75 for that tylenol and get reimbursed $2 total.

Blue Shield pays way less than Blue Cross does. At least Blue Cross pays you over cost; Blue Shield uses MAC's obtained by some guy selling drugs out of a van out back.

DrugMonkey, Master of Pharmacy said...

....which leaves you a profit margin of 166%.

Again, you'd rather make that $1.25 after paying $200 wholesale? Because you do on Richie Rich's Blue Shield plan.

Hate. Bad for society. Bad for business.

midwest woman said...

anxiously waiting for email post..nobody gives a good spanking like you do.

Anonymous said...

Dear anonymous 6:51 pm...I do not think poor people shouldn't have beverages or toys for their children. Buying Monster drinks at 3 bucks a pop EVERY week (yes I see it) or buying OVERPRICED toys is WHY they are poor. As is owning not one but TWO iphones (one for daddy too!) and no they didn't buy it off the back of a truck. Not all recipients of aid are working 2 jobs to make ends meet and if you read my whole comment, you would see that I have no problem with the NEEDY getting aid. It is the people who have no idea how to manage money but think they are OWED something.
As for birth control---I live in a tri-state area and all three states' medicaid programs pay for birth control--but again for the people abusing the system they don't care! If III am paying for all their shit why shouldn't they have more kids???

Anonymous said...

Angry v. Monkey is a great fight. I love watching. You guys should sell this shit to HBO pay per view. Angry, in the world we live in we do not get credit for all of the shit we give away as charity. I have bypassed countless idiot pa's and gave welfare babies nystatin cream for the mom who won't change the dam kids diaper. I have lowered the price countless times for the poor and disadvantaged. Sometimes I just ask them how much money they do have. I would imagine you have done the same. The difference between a liberal like DM and you is you do it because it is the right thing to do. It comes from your profits and that is fine. A liberal like DM thinks it should come from the governments pockets (ie. all tax payors)

By the way DM, I just read that your friend from Flordia picked a black women to be his running mate as Lt. Gov. I guess she is an "Uncle Tom?" and rotten sleazy bitch. I imagine you will attack her personally. That is what liberals do.

Allison in Texas said...

I have been reading your blog for a few months and I just have to say: This. Right here. Is why I love you. If I weren't happily married I would stalk the hell out of you.
Yes, I live in Texas, among the lunatics and stupidity, but there are others like us even here. It's not completely hopeless.

Anonymous said...

Angry pharmacist - you are a pissant.

I'll have you know that you can work 40 hours a week in the country and still be poor enough for Medicaid.

You can have gone to college, got a degree, worked a job for 15 years and suddenly gotten "laid off" because the company you used to work for moved their operations to Venezuela. You can try to find a job at your old level, but can only find entry level administrative work paying LESS than 10 bucks an hour and moving to another state just isn't possible with aging parents and school aged children.

I go to work every day and I can't afford health insurance and my job doesn't offer it. I have a college degree and I'm doing my best.

You are a bitter asshole and people like you need a trip to visit the fucking wizard to get a brain and a heart - and maybe the courage to admit that you're not right about everything.

Get off your high horse - life is not that simple for everyone.

PharmStudent said...

Love you Drug Monkey! TAP and anon @ 11:32 just like to hide their bigotry behind what they say they "do" for those poor (ugh do I really have to deal with "those") people. They are fooling no one but themselves and other bigots. Really. And yes, it really does make the rest of us sick listening to the justification.

Anonymous said...

This is about Rick Scott, remember? He stole 1.7 Kazillion dollars from us and got away with most of it. That fact alone qualifies him to become a Politician...

Zach L said...

Wow. Still timely five months later. What a beautifully written opinion. I'm sad that this is my first time hearing of this blog, but I'm glad to have discovered a new favorite blog.

Corrinne said...

I have seen and know at least 12 families (All white too! Imagine that. I am a sober addict, I did not always hang around the best people) who completely abuse the shit out of welfare programs. They get their electric, rent, food, school tuition, and a number of other things paid for by the government. While they rarely work and can't keep a job. If they do work it is under the table so they don't lose any benefits. They have big screen TV's, they bought the PS3 as soon as it hit shelves- shit, they own every game console available.

I could really go on forever about this. But there *are* people who abuse the hell out of the system. A family member of mine is one of these people and she is currently 5 months pregnant with another kid she can't afford. She cannot afford the one she already has. It really pisses me off beyond belief. I am strictly liberal, but that doesn't mean people who abuse the system get a free pass. Yes, Scott should be locked up for what he did. But I can disapprove of both Scott and the people abusing welfare programs. They use up resources they don't need and people that actually NEED it get shafted.

I purposely tried my damndest not to get knocked up because I can't afford it, not to run up credit cards, to get good grades, etc. I'm still dirt poor but the difference is that I don't have kids so I will never qualify for ANY help. I'm tired so I'm rambling. But I'm busting my ass and it feels like there's no hope of ever finishing college at this rate, I can't afford to. I can't afford health care. UUgh. It just bothers me that people like my family member are so ungrateful and selfish. Shutting up now.