NYT: Survey Finds Beneficiaries Largely Fault Medicare Law

[DeepModem Mom]

Survey Finds Beneficiaries Largely Fault Medicare Law
By ROBERT PEAR

Published: August 11, 2004


WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - A new survey suggests that the number of Medicare beneficiaries with negative views of the new prescription drug law far exceeds the number with positive views.

But, it says, beneficiaries want Congress to fix what they see as problems in the law, not repeal it as many Democrats have advocated.

The survey, released on Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, found that 47 percent of beneficiaries had unfavorable views of the law, while 26 percent had favorable views. The rest said they did not have enough information to offer an opinion....

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"Views are decidedly more negative than positive," said Drew E. Altman, president and chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been conducting surveys on health policy issues for years. "The law has not been the political plus that the president and Republicans had hoped for."

The White House has cited the Medicare law as one of Mr. Bush's major achievements in domestic policy, showing his ability to fulfill a promise he made in the 2000 campaign. When Democrats controlled Congress, they often promised drug benefits to the elderly, but never delivered, Mr. Bush has said....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/politics/11medicare.html

[xxqqqzme]

1. he delivered !

squatter delivered all the medicare prescription needdy to big drug companies.