Posted on 03/14/2006 3:18:57 PM PST by kenth
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - President Bush campaigned Tuesday to boost the troubled new Medicare drug program that is the subject of a fierce election-year debate between Democrats and Republicans.
Bush pleaded with older Americans a key voting block, particularly in midterm congressional elections to look positively on the new benefit. Under the program, the government subsidizes medication costs for the elderly and disabled through plans created by private insurers.
In effect since January, it has been under fire from Democrats as too confusing for seniors with its numerous plans and coverage gaps and from some conservative Republicans as an overly costly expansion of government.
But Bush said seniors, particularly those on the lower end of the income scale, should at least explore the options and consider enrolling before a May 15 deadline ushers in higher premiums.
"I think you're going to like what you see," the president said from a public high school gym in this conservative-leaning western New York community. "The key is saving a little money in retirement."
During a 35-minute discussion with a panel assembled by the White House, Bush acknowledged problems early on, when errors left many temporarily without coverage.
But he said the program is providing 50 percent reductions in drug costs for the average elderly patient, and significantly higher savings for lower-income seniors. And he said the introduction of choice though bewildering at first is also helping the 26 million who have enrolled so far to benefit from higher quality.
Bush also argued the program is proving less expensive than anticipated. Federal spending on the drug benefit will be 20 percent lower in 2006 than was estimated last summer, due to competition and the wider availability of generic drugs, according to the White House.
"It's working," Bush said. "It makes a lot of sense."
Later, Bush visited Ferris Hills at West Lake, a seniors residence. He was supposed to be there during a Medicare education session for residents, but weather forced a schedule rearrangement that had him arriving about 90 minutes late, after the program was completed. So Bush was left briefly greeting a few seniors who waited for him in common rooms.
He perhaps unwittingly used language recalling a famous Democratic anti-poverty initiative, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s.
"Everybody explaining Medicare to you the new deal?" Bush asked a crowd in one room. "I hope so. It's worth looking at."
Later Tuesday, back at the White House, the president was also meeting with representatives from groups that have been holding education and enrollment sessions around the country.
It was the first of two straight days Bush was devoting to the program. On Wednesday, he is delivering a Medicare speech at an assisted living facility in Silver Spring, Md., a Washington suburb.
The renewed presidential attention reflects the issue's high stakes in a year when most of Congress is up for re-election and Bush wants to help his party retain control of both chambers.
"The Medicare drug program has been a nightmare for America's seniors and is clear evidence of the Bush administration's shocking incompetence," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., said.
Democrats favored benefits provided directly by the government rather than through private companies and hope to make the program a liability for Republicans. Americans United, a group with close ties to congressional Democrats, intends to use polling, television advertisements and public events to campaign against the benefit.
While in New York, Bush met Jason McElwain, the autistic basketball team manager who drew national cheers by scoring 20 points in four minutes for his suburban Rochester high school team. The president also met relatives of five U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and elsewhere. While with the family of Jason Dunham, killed in April 2004 in Iraq, the president signed a bill naming a nearby post office for the Marine corporal.
And if your grandson ever has a less than perfect day, no doubt that will be Bush's fault too!!!! /s/
No, OldFriend. Not you. My back hurts. Get off!
:-) Hehehe!
You will be when the costs of this start adding up. As I've stated, it is so refreshing to see Republicans returning to their roots of big government. Cradle to grave, the government taking care of us, how 'conservative'....
This plan allows for preventive medicine which in the long run will save the government money. People getting checkups will be able to learn if they have high blood pressure or diabetes before it's a real health issue.
Medication and nutrition advice is a lot cheaper than hospitalization in the long run.
Why, of course! ;)
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."
-- Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and one of the founders of the ACLU.
While on the telephone with the people from the insurance companies, I was told that there were many, many errors caused by the "Medicare Part D" program that they were trying to straighten out, most caused by the Medicare people themselves.
I want my entitlement and I want it now!!!!!!!
I don't care if my grandchildren work sixty hours per week because they're over taxed. I want it now!!!!!!!!
:-)
We can hope to mitigate the costs by doing preventive medicine or we can pay triple the amount later.
Do you do any preventive maintenance on your home or car? Do you wait till you're broken down on the road and then wonder what went wrong?
Checkups can make the difference between a minor adjustment or a major repair.
Choose!
If we're going to go down that road, then the prescription drug program, Medicare, Medicade and Social Security are like throwing money at a lemon. It doesn't work. Eventually, you have to get a new car.
This is going to happen anyway. The more government gets involved the more prices are going to go up. Why? Because government will start mandating what's covered and what's not. It all starts out innocently, but then gets added on and on and on and never ends.
It's the closest thing to eternal life, government. And this is a government program. One that is sure to grown beyond your wildest expectations. One that will leave my grandchildren paupers after the taxman gets it all to pay for my prescription drugs, Social Security. No thank you.
Give me the market. Spur competition and we'll have competitive prices. But these kinds of issues are emotional and tend to lead to the belief that healthcare is a right.
I am on Medicare and Medicaid. It took a month for the drug plan to be effective, but that is my only complaint. My 8 prescriptions with a retail of about $700 cost me $22 this month.
So the fact that the drug companies have lowered their prices is a little fact that you choose to ignore to promote your theory?
ping
If Bush had a PR team worth a darn, which he doesn't, he could make a lot of political hay with this.
"Like FDR`s Social Security program and LBJ`s Medicare program, GWB`s new trillion dollar Prescription Drug Program is more liberal social engineering. Plain and simple. Another bureaucratic blunder. We don't need more government, we need less government. Limited government is a key part of the conservative agenda. More expansion of government is not part of any conservative policy."
exactly. but this program is "wonderful" because someone with an (R) next to their name pushed it. gee, wonder what they'd say if someone with a (D) next to their name was the promoter?
Things did change a bit though, with a new prescription for an Alzheimer's drug for my mother - the cost saving under the plan for this one 90 day supply equaled her entire annual premium (Blue Cross Gold Plan, with no deductible, at $35 a month).
The signup process was horrible for me though - could only do it by phone and it took me between 6 and 8 hours to get thru and get it accomplished.
"They's givin' away free stuff!"
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