Bush now has completely belied his 2000 campaign ads on Medicare!

[NV1962]

Amazing.

I guess I should be grateful that the Bush administration generously helps me get the maximum mileage out of my previous posts, but then again I’d rather they wouldn’t.

Take my earlier rant aimed at the deceptive ads that Bush ran in the 2000 election campaign. Two examples here:

rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/ndrive/rwh091700.rm?start=1:30.2&end=2:00.5
and
rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/odrive/rwh092400.rm?start=1:59.4&end=2:29.5

(Both in RealPlayer format - copy & paste into browser, or into RealPlayer.) Two ads charging that Gore’s Medicare plan limited the choice of clients (whereas Bush’s plan promised free choice) and that prescription drugs costs have skyrocketed during the Clinton years (whereas Bush promised that “every senior will have access (to) prescription drug benefits.”)

OK, we now know about the latter one being bogus; what the heck was he thinking that he presented his disastrously cryptic coupons plan as a savings plan anyway? Shame on the AARP for initially buying into the bushista health care swindle - at least they came to their senses later on. Then again, I’m sure the tens of thousands of angry (former) AARP members slapping them around helped them to wake up from their Bush-prescribed drug addled condition. Anyway, that was one major “inaccuracy” in those ads.

But I never thought the bushistas were baldfaced enough to put their “free choice” claims in reverse. I mean, how stupid can you be, right? Well, never underestimate the stupidity of this gang. Says The New York Times in a fresh article:

Federal investigators said Monday that the Bush administration had improperly allowed some private health plans to limit Medicare patients’ choice of health care providers, including doctors, nursing homes and home care agencies.

…

The accountability office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said the administration “exceeded its authority” by allowing P.P.O.’s to limit patients’ choices of providers offering skilled nursing and home health care, dental care and routine physical examinations.

In many cases, it said, the private plans covered such services only when beneficiaries used health care providers designated by the plans themselves. Beneficiaries who went outside the network of preferred providers were often “liable for the full cost of their care,” the report said.

“By law,” it said, “these plans should have been required to cover all services in their benefit packages even if those services were obtained from providers outside the plans’ provider networks.” But, it said, the administration waived this requirement for 29 of the 33 preferred provider plans, allowing them to deny coverage for some services obtained outside their networks.

The administration “did not have the authority to allow plans to restrict enrollees’ choice of providers” as it did, the report said.

But wait - there’s more. In those 2000 campaign ads, Bush also chastised his opponent for “skyrocketing” prescription drugs cost during the Clinton years, and that running a private enterprise based free-choice system would help lower costs. Well, almost:

(more)

[NV1962]

1. kick

(I thought this'd make good campaign ammo)

:kick: