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Who doesn't like the Geico gecko? His outgoing manner. His charm. His Hollywood version of a British working class accent. You just know the little fella is working overtime to save you money.

His heartwarming message is that Geico will save you money while giving you excellent service.

The truth is that while Geico may save you some money, you better not need to use those benefits you're paying for. Why? Because Geico saves you money the American corporate way: by reducing staff and potential payouts.

The result is that you're hard pressed to get a live voice, gecko or human, on the line without strenuous effort. The standard method to reduce costs is to cancel your policy after you've had an accident. This comes from an actual case study involving me.

You may have notice the ads running on television lately asking your help to defend the regulations in Medicare Part D. They are focused on preventing any changes to drug coverage for seniors on Medicare. They say that 90% of seniors are now covered by the newest laws enacted by the then Republican controlled Congress. They warn that any changes to these provisions would, in effect, throw Grandma off the train.

Who produces these ads is not obvious to the viewer. Whoever it is clearly has deep pockets. During a typical evening of channel surfing, it's not uncommon to see one or another version of these spots three times.

Now it's time to see how this affects you.

The stated goal of the most recent changes to Medicare was to guarantee some level of relief from skyrocketing drug costs for our senior citizens. I use the word "our" for a number of reasons.

Maybe you think that your parents are secure in their retirement plans and that your only burden will be to determine when and if they have to be institutionalized. That doesn't take into consideration the fact that the same forces that are restricting your access to health care from your employer are the same ones that affect their pensions.

My father was a faithful employee of a chemical company for over 30 years. He received appropriate levels of health coverage upon his retirement. As soon as the new Medicare law was enacted, his prescription drug benefits were dropped and he was forced to apply for Part D. As a result his prescription costs rose 50%. The increase may have to be made up by his family (me). Even though I'm not on Medicare, I'm affected.

You may not be concerned about that. You're young. Everything still works. Maybe you think that the health insurance your employer provides but which is prohibitively expensive to use is sufficient. Until you get laid off, that is.

To paraphrase John Paul Jones, we have met the seniors and they are us. The older the human hoopty gets, the more frequently it needs to go into the shop. The needed repairs can be much more extensive and expensive. Ongoing medications are often required.

The stated goal of Medicare reform sounds good. In practice it can be quite deleterious.

Who was in charge when this legislation was enacted? It is an accepted tenet of today's Republican Party that government regulation is bad unless it benefits business. The majority party prohibited Democrats from participating in the Medicare bill writing process.

The roll was taken at 3:00 am and the measure passed by one vote. The normal time allowed for a bill to be voted on is 15 minutes. The period was extended to 2 hours and 45 minutes to allow Republican leadership enough arm twisting time to secure enough votes for passage.

Congress knew this bill was bad from birth.

Medicare Part D was written by pharmaceutical lobbyists and underwritten by an industry that has spent more money on lobbying than any other single group- $855 million from 1998 to 2006, according to the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity.

This month's measure to allow the government to negotiate with drug manufacturers to lower drug prices was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 49-40. Fourteen Democrats voted no. Big Pharma trumps red and blue with green.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics and PoliticalMoneyLine, the 49 Senators who voted against the bill received nearly $5 million from industry executives and political action committees in campaign contributions since 2001. That accounts for nearly 75% of industry contributions to Senate members. If you can control 49 members of the Senate, then you can control the federal government.

That kind of money can produce some pretty smooth arguments. When the non negotiation provision was originally passed, the drug companies claimed that unfettered competition in the free market would drive down prices. Today the cost of medication continues to soar.

The domination of our nation by Big Pharma ranges from macro to micro.

The television airwaves have been deluged with drug commercials, all of which tout a product the parent company has a patent on. Free market competition has its limits when it's inconvenient for the drug companies.

It isn't difficult to notice the effects of Big Pharma personally. Where do you think those samples your doctor gives you for free come from? It's the old drug dealer line, the first one's free.

Have you ever seen a drug sales rep speeding through your doctor's office who wasn't well-dressed, attractive, female, white, and under 35? You don't suppose that was intended to influence a doctor's choice of drugs to prescribe, do you?

The Barbie Aryans are at the gates. And their samples are legion.

Patients who use the medication. Doctors who prescribe it. Legislators who write the laws concerning the development, marketing, and profit by the drug companies. Big Pharma knows how to reach out to everyone. I'm surprised that Neo didn't have to choose "the little blue pill" (Viagra) in the Matrix.

To make this crystal clear, there is only one downside to allowing the American government to negotiate with the major pharmaceutical companies to get lower drug prices for Medicare patients. Those companies' windfall profits would be somewhat reduced.

As for the most important question in America version 2007, here's how you're going to be affected in the "not as distant as you think" future.

With the advent of Medicare Part B, fewer private pension systems (and quite possibly state and local ones as well) will be offering their own drug coverage to retirement age citizens. Everyone will be susceptible to the whims of Big Pharma and their obedient servants in the Capitol Building. There is only one direction drug prices will go: up.

There's no reason to think that the power of Big Pharma only affects our seniors. Name brand pain killers, anti-depressants, and birth control meds that you may use for extended periods of time are likely to have their patents extended longer, keeping your prices higher than anywhere else on Earth.

Our senior citizens often have ongoing conditions. They are more likely to have to rely on name brand prescriptions from their doctors. They are also more likely to live on fixed incomes. Price hikes for drugs can be devastating to people who have worked hard all their lives only to have Big Pharma stick it to them in the end.

Can't relate? Imagine having to choose between two items, say medication and food, both of which are necessary for your survival.

It's easy to say that Medicare, Social Security, or any other government program designed to help the citizens of this nation won't be around when your turn comes. That's a cynical cop-out and a self-fulfilling prophecy. It plays right into the hands of immoral politicians and huge corporations that don't have your best interests at heart.

Look at who wants you to believe those things. The main policy goal of George W. Bush's second term was the privatization of Social Security. Given the fact that his administration has racked up the biggest budget deficits in our nation's history and never met a pro-corporate idea it didn't like, do you really think his primary motivation was providing retirement security for our seniors? Likewise, how much do you have in your personal health care savings account that he touted?

A small light has been shone on how our nation's policies toward its citizens are being shaped. Only a public outcry can combat the pernicious influence of Big Pharma and their corporate kin.

Hey Gecko. I got your fly right here.

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