May 11, 2006
FOLKLORIC EVEN:
1 million more sign up for Medicare drug program (Julie Appleby, 5/10/06, USA TODAY)
In the midst of a last-minute push to get seniors to sign up for the new Medicare drug program, the Bush administration on Wednesday said 1 million more people have enrolled since figures were last released at the end of April.Posted by Orrin Judd at May 11, 2006 7:48 AMMedicare officials say they hope to get about 90% of the approximately 43 million eligible seniors covered by the midnight Monday enrollment deadline.
"To have (that many) enrolled in the first year would be historic," said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, who spent the day at sign-up events in Detroit and Lansing, Mich.
Why isn't Bush answering charges that this program doesn't target the neediest among us by explaining that Medicaid already pays for all the targeted group's medical and drug costs including taxi fare to and from visits to their healthcare providers.
Medicaid is all but invisible to the media except when there are charges of corruption which can be traced to Republican politicians.
Non-Americans and even some of our fellow citizens are totally unaware that the poor already have universal health care courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.