Politicians fool only themselves with Medicare bribe

[UpInArms]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/shapiro/2004-08-12-hype_x.htm

excerpt:

Last fall, when Congress added prescription-drug coverage to Medicare, the new law was hailed as a political masterstroke. It offered discount cards and, by 2006, the option of insurance to cover some drug costs. George W. Bush was expected to win plaudits for the largest senior-citizen health initiative since Medicare was created in 1965. The prevailing logic was that he had a tangible legislative accomplishment to flesh out his 2000 campaign claim of being a "compassionate conservative."

As Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie put it in an interview with Fox News last November: "People have talked about a prescription-drug benefit in Medicare for years. But this is the first we've actually been able to get it done, and I think that is important. I also believe that good policy is good politics and so, yes, I think that people will appreciate the president's leadership."

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What no one anticipated was the reaction of the elderly, a group that votes in disproportionate numbers. The Kaiser-Harvard survey found that 47% of those eligible for the prescription-drug benefit don't like it. Only 26% have a favorable impression. Perhaps the most stunning figure is the number of Americans covered by Medicare who say they are "enthusiastic" about their forthcoming drug benefit. Just 2% of those polled — one in 50 — are lofting their pill bottles to toast this pre-election gift from the president and Congress.

So what's not to like when the government, in effect, is willing to borrow hundreds of billions to woo voters on Medicare? The major objections cited in the survey are that the drug coverage is too skimpy, that the law is too complicated and that the pharmaceutical and insurance companies derive a disproportionate share of the benefits from the legislation. More than two-thirds of those who have a negative impression of the new law cite all of these reasons to explain their hostility

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Despite the president's oratory, the message of "Mission Accomplished" does not seem to be getting through to the Medicare crowd. In the Kaiser survey, just 28% of Medicare recipients say the new law will influence their vote for president. In that group, John Kerry leads Bush by more than 2-to-1.

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