Noticia nº24.751

/noticias.info/ St. Louis, MO - Holding a town hall meeting with St. Louis area seniors Friday, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry pledged to move America in a new direction after four years of Bush policies that have put special interests ahead of seniors and families.

With the president recently imposing the largest Medicare hike in history on seniors and a new study showing families paying thousands more for health care under Bush, Kerry said the president has wrongly chosen to help the drug companies and HMOs over the American people.

As president, Kerry vowed to build a stronger America with a plan to strengthen and protect our seniors and bring down health care costs.

“The truth is George Bush sold a bill of goods to the American people, while he gave a bag of goodies to his special interest friends,” Kerry said. “That’s W – wrong choices, wrong direction and the wrong leadership for America.”

The Bush Medicare bill came with a $400 billion price tag for the American people.

It gives $139 billion in profits to the drug companies and $46 billion in subsidies to the HMOs. In return, seniors received higher drug costs because it lacks costs control measures, and a 17 percent hike in their premiums, news they received just hours after the president misleadingly promised them “immediate help” in his convention address.

“You can imagine how hard the Bush administration had to work to pull a fast one like that on the American people,” Kerry said. “In the end, it looks like all of George Bush’s special interest friends got a big payoff while seniors got a bigger bill.”

Bush campaigns and affiliated entities have received over $25 million combined in campaign donations from the insurance, drug and health care industries, and the bill has been embroiled in myriad scandals and lies from the start. Medicare administrator Thomas Scully violated the law in hiding the true cost of the plan in order mislead Congress and House leaders offered bribes in exchange for support.

“John Edwards and I will set a new direction,” Kerry said. “George W. Bush believes when it comes to Medicare, the big drug companies come first, the insurance companies come second and seniors come last. Well I’m going to put you first. Medicare doesn’t belong to the special interests, it belongs to you. You paid for it. We have a plan for a real prescription drug benefit for seniors, to cut the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans and to make health care affordable and available for everyone in this country.”

Kerry and John Edwards will move America in a new direction with a plan that puts America’s seniors first and ensures that they have access to affordable, quality and reliable health care. As president, Kerry will work to protect and strengthen the Medicare program, as well as provide a real prescription drug benefit that ensures access to affordable drugs.

The Kerry-Edwards plan will create a real, meaningful affordable drug benefit, and unlike the Bush bill, take steps to bring down prescription drug costs, including allowing reimportation from Canada. They will also give seniors more options to address their long-term needs such as allowing Medicaid to pay for alternative care options outside of nursing homes.


10/09/2004