Millions yet to join Medicare drug plan
POLL: MOST SAY PAPERWORK EASY, SAVINGS ARE THERE
San Jose Mercury News, April 12th, 2006
Millions of senior citizens have not signed up for and do not know
much about Medicare's new prescription-drug benefit, but among those
who have enrolled, three-quarters said the paperwork was easy to
complete and nearly two-thirds said the program had saved them money,
the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.
The findings underscore the challenge the administration faces in
persuading large numbers of seniors to participate in the program, the
largest expansion of a government social benefit in decades.
Democrats have attacked the program as too complex and costly, and say it was written to benefit pharmaceutical companies.
President Bush defended the plan Tuesday in front of senior groups
in Missouri and Iowa. ``We had people say the prescription-drug plan is
just simply a hollow promise, or the bill will leave millions of
seniors worse off,'' he said in Jefferson City, Mo. ``That's not the
facts. See, when you cut through all the rhetoric and look at the
results, I think people are going to be amazed at what's available.''
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