News Intelligence Analysis
At Biddeford Town Meeting,
Rep.
Tom Allen Outlines Concerns about Medicare Legislation
Restates
his reservations about prescription drug provisions and other
changes pending in Congress, listens to constituents’ comments
August
20, 2003
Biddeford, Maine—U.S. Representative Tom Allen outlined
his concerns on 8/20 about the Medicare legislation recently
passed in the House and Senate. Representative Allen condemned
efforts by President Bush and Congressional Republicans to privatize
Medicare and reiterated his grave reservations about the inadequacy
of the prescription drug provisions of both the House and Senate
bills.
“The House and Senate Medicare bills offer the illusion
of prescription drug coverage,” Representative Allen said.
“But both are in fact riddled with inequality, complexity,
uncertainty, gaps in coverage and hidden costs. Even more appalling,
the House bill transforms Medicare into a privatized 'voucher'-type
system in 2010, ending the guaranteed benefits Medicare has reliably
provided to seniors since 1965. Both bills would leave millions
of seniors in rural states like Maine with second-class coverage
and higher prices when private insurers find they cannot make
enough money here.”
The Biddeford town meeting was the latest in a series of town
meetings Representative Allen has conducted in York County and
elsewhere in Maine’s First Congressional District. Representative
Allen’s recent forums have given Maine citizens the opportunity
to learn more about the pending Medicare legislation, ask questions
and express their opinions before Congress reconvenes after Labor
Day.
“For nearly four decades, Medicare has been extending and
improving the lives of tens of millions of older Americans, protecting
them from impoverishment due to devastating medical costs and
providing peace of mind to them and their families,” Representative
Allen said. “One of Medicare’s greatest, most crucial
strengths has always been its guarantee of fair, stable, predictable
and affordable health insurance coverage to America’s seniors.
Now, seniors want a Medicare prescription drug benefit that provides
the same type of fail-safe coverage for the medications their
doctors tell them they must take. Under the bills before Congress,
seniors’ premiums, co-pays and choice of drugs may change
from year to year and from state to state. Both the House and
Senate bills also contain enormous gaps in coverage that will
force seniors, once they have exceeded an arbitrary cap, to pay
100 percent of their drug costs. Instead of choosing either the
House or Senate bill, Congress should enact legislation to establish
fair, stable, predictable, equitable and affordable prescription
drug coverage for all seniors through Medicare.”
Send a letter
to the editor
about
this article