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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Chen who wrote (423530)	7/6/2003 1:50:12 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 769670

Another big Bush lie: Medicare Bills Don't Mimic Model Coverage Not as Comprehensive as Federal Employees' In a speech to senior citizens in Miami, President Bush pushed making prescription drug coverage under Medicare more like that offered to federal employees, an idea he has promoted in other speeches and in radio addresses. By Ceci Connolly Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 6, 2003; Page A04 President Bush often tells audiences that when it comes to health care and prescription drugs, what's good enough for Congress is good enough for America's senior citizens. Many lawmakers agree, saying Medicare recipients deserve the same medical benefits they receive. "My mother is on Medicare," Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) said during Congress's recent debate on adding drug coverage to the 38-year-old program. "I want her to have a health care system that is comparable to what we have for federal employees." But the reality is that the two Medicare drug bills passed by the House and Senate do not come close to providing the level of coverage given to 8.5 million federal workers, including lawmakers, White House staff and the president. Both measures would require senior citizens to buy an auxiliary prescription plan, whereas all 188 health plans offered to federal employees include drug coverage -- and at far more generous reimbursement rates. "In effect, the president and congressional leadership is talking the talk but not walking the walk in terms of providing comparable coverage," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, an advocacy group promoting comprehensive health care for all. "The drug benefit [proposed] for seniors provides merely a fraction of the drug coverage that members of Congress receive today."