Of course, I don’t, but Medicare Part D, the giant and transparent sop written by and for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, goes a long way toward making aging even more stressful than it has to be. Now that it’s enrollment time again, Jane Brody, writing in the NYT, offers a heads up to people eligible for the disastrous, corporate plan. First the stick:

Those already in a plan may want to consider changing plans during the next sign-up period, Wednesday through Dec. 31. Those who are still on the fence about whether to join a plan may want to enroll now, before the penalties for delayed enrollment increase significantly.

Though legislation is pending in Congress to drop the premium penalties, at least for this first year, they are still in place and amount to 1 percent of the average national monthly premium for each month that you didn’t sign up.

If you haven’t yet signed up and do so in November, you will pay a premium penalty of 7 percent — 1 percent for each month since May. If you wait a year, the premium penalty will be 19 percent, and the average national premium may be higher as well. Furthermore, these penalties are not a one-time matter; they will stay with you as a higher monthly premium for as long as you are in a Part D plan.

That’s a lifetime penalty. The latest Enron casuality will be going to jail for five and half years. Miss the Part D deadline and you pay the price (straight to the insurance companies) for life!

And now the carrot … the moldy, poisonous, razorblade-laden carrot:

Though few, if any, consumer groups are happy with the way the Part D plan was constructed and are even less pleased with how it is being administered, they are inclined to recommend — albeit reluctantly — that Medicare recipients who do not have prescription drug coverage through an employer or a private insurer join a plan even if they currently use few if any prescription drugs.

David Lipschutz, a lawyer for California Health Advocates, a nonprofit agency that advises state health insurance and Medicare programs, said even if you do not need it now, “it’s probably a good idea to pick up a plan and pay for it as you would any other insurance policy.”

The problem is this: Say you currently take no prescription drugs or only one such drug daily, perhaps to lower blood pressure or cholesterol or relieve painful arthritis. With the monthly premium for a Part D plan, the deductible and the co-pay for each prescription, you may reap little or no benefit from being in a plan now, and may even lose money.

But what if you are found to have cancer or multiple sclerosis between Jan. 1 and Nov. 15, 2007, the latter being the start of the next sign-up period? And what if the best treatment for your disease is an astronomically expensive drug? Will you be able to afford it?

Of course, the plan you signed up for in 2006 may not cover that drug, in which case you will have to file an appeal for coverage, a process that can take much longer than Part D regulations mandate. The Medicare Rights Center — 1-888-466-9050 — has a cadre of volunteer lawyers who provide free services to consumers having trouble with appeals.

Ah, the Golden Years. If nothing says more about a society than the way it treats the most vulnerable in it, then we should be asking ourselves why we hate our elderly - our ill elderly at that. Well, not we exactly, but the Congress, Democratic members not excepted, and its corporate masters for sure.

This is a an issue near and dear to my heart. I spent months futilely lobbying my now-former congressman to come out for federal fixes to this abomination. November 7 then brought an extra dose of good news for me since fixing Medicare Part D is on the Dem’s agenda. It’s also good news that the proposed reforms are super sensible and are immune to any charges of partisanship or class war. We’re talking about letting the government negotiate for lower prices (just like CostCo does), ending the draconian penalties and stopping the bait and switch that goes on when plans change leaving the customer no recourse - real no-brainers. Still, with the full force of two of the most powerful industries in the world as well as the GOP and its Noise Machine behind the Part D status quo, I can’t help but think that it will be a miracle if real reform is made.

Here’s hoping I’m very wrong.