Et tu, Brother Jeb?

It seems that not even Brother Jeb can pretend that everything is fine-and-dandy with the latest Bush dynasty disaster, the Medicare Part D plan. State will pay what Medicare missed: By the governor's order, Florida will pick up the tab for some medications that used to be covered by Medicaid by Anita Kumar and Stephen Nohlgren St. Petersburg Times 01/27/06:

Gov. Jeb Bush signed an executive order Thursday to immediately begin paying for drugs for roughly 100,000 people who used to get free drugs from the state through Medicaid but were switched to the new federal Medicare program Jan. 1.

"These are, in many cases, people who have complex medical needs that require prescription drugs for them to maintain their health, and based on the law they should not be coming out of pocket," Bush said Thursday during a visit to Washington.

The plan, which takes effect immediately, lasts until Feb. 15 but could be extended.

Bush's decision comes after weeks of confusion as pharmacists, the government and private insurance companies struggled to synchronize their computers so they could tell which plans were supposed to be serving this vulnerable Medicaid population.

Of course, the Florida branch of the Bush dynasty waited nearly a month to step in with this relief measure. Even Schwarzenegger in California was able to be more proactive than that.

So this is hardly a glowing recommendation for "compassionate conservatism". (Remember that quaint phrase?)