KENNEDY AND COLLEAGUES URGE PRESIDENT BUSH TO PROVIDE AN EFFECTIVE PLAN FOR FIXING PART D

Washington, DC—Today, Democratic Senators gathered to urge President Bush to take immediate action to fix the failed and flawed Medicare Part D program that has left America’s seniors and disabled without prescription drug coverage and without their medications. America’s low-income elderly and disabled persons who previously had the costs of their drugs covered under Medicaid and who were transferred to the new Medicare drug program on January 1, 2005 are paying the price for an inadequate and unjust prescription drug plan. In the midst of this failure, the Administration should not arbitrarily set a date when states must stop paying for prescription drugs until such a time that Medicare has an effective safety net in place that insures that all seniors will get the medicine that they depend upon. The average monthly spending per dual-eligible resident in Massachusetts alone is estimated to be $232.43 per month for 2006, or $2789.16 per year. Senator Kennedy said, “It is clear that like Katrina -- despite the warnings - the Bush Administration was totally unprepared for the disaster that their drug plan created. Now its time for them to stop making excuses and work to get it right. Democrats fought for changes in the Medicare law to make it fair for seniors, and we’ll keep fighting to make those changes. I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact a fair, straightforward and effective drug program.” Senators Kennedy, Lautenberg, Rockefeller, Kerry, Murray and Dayton also sent President Bush a letter yesterday calling for a fix to the Medicare debacle. The letter is included below, as well as Senator Kennedy’s remarks at today’s press conference. -30-