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Strategies & Market Trends : YEEHAW CANDIDATES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ken W who wrote (3796)	11/25/2003 1:17:39 PM
From: Sergio H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23958

Ken, I am trying to rehabilitate Mike. I think there's gap fill potential. Here's a link to Mike's new thread. He'll create a portfolio as soon as short term picks come up. Let 'em rip! Subject 54443 Thanks again Mike.

To: Ken W who wrote (3796)	11/25/2003 2:51:35 PM
From: JoeinIowa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23958

Ken, This bill passing may be helping out MDPA today. Joe "Reuters Senate Passes Medicare Reform Bill Tuesday November 25, 1:23 pm ET By Joanne Kenen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for President Bush, the Senate on Tuesday approved landmark Medicare legislation to add prescription drug coverage and introduce controversial free-market reforms to the popular federal health plan for the elderly and disabled. ADVERTISEMENT The nearly $400 billion, 10-year bill was criticized by Democrats and some seniors as inadequate, but its passage was seen as a domestic policy triumph for Bush that he can carry into his 2004 re-election campaign. A White House spokesman praised the bill for giving senior citizens "a modernized Medicare system, more choices for our seniors and significant benefits on their prescription drugs." The drug benefit, which will be delivered through private insurers with government subsidies, will go into effect in 2006, after the elections. But some Democrats predict that senior citizens will rebel, finding the drug package puny and the new system befuddling. "I predict that we will be back within the next 12 months. Seniors will demand that we respond to the many deficiencies in this bill," said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. "This bill is deeply flawed." Even the AARP (News - Websites) , the influential retirees lobby whose endorsement of the bill created an uproar and sent some older people into the streets trying to burn their plastic-coated nonflammable membership cards, said it wants to expand the benefits in the future. The vote was 54-44. Nine Republicans crossed party lines, balking at the price tag at a time of high deficits. Eleven mostly moderate Democrats and a Democratic-leaning independent joined the Republican majority to support the bill, saying it constitutes a good first step delivering the elderly the long-promised assistance in paying for life-saving drugs. Two of the Democratic presidential contenders in the Senate, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and John Kerry of Massachusetts did not vote. John Edwards of North Carolina voted no. All three were present Monday, however, to cast key procedural votes aimed at blocking the bill. The bill squeaked through the House in the predawn hours of Saturday. Democrats had enough votes to defeat it but House Republicans refused to bring down the gavel, extending the vote for an unprecedented three hours until they and Bush convinced two conservative Republicans to switch "no" votes. BABY BOOMERS Backers of the bill, while acknowledging its limitations, say it a welcome down payment on a drug benefit that politicians have long promised. They say the infusion of free market competition and the expanded role for private health plans in Medicare will give seniors more choices, make Medicare more cost-efficient, and preserve the fiscally strained program as 77 million baby boomers start to retire. "Today is an extraordinary day. Today is a fateful day. Today is a red letter day for seniors," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who has made Medicare a signature issue in his first year as Republican leader. A surgeon, Frist said he wrote hundreds of prescriptions he knew would never be filled because his patients would not be able to afford them. But Democrats accused Republicans of using the drug benefit as a Trojan horse to slip in radical changes that will unfairly tilt Medicare toward private health plans and lead to the privatization of the popular 38-year old program. Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd said the bill would boost pay excessively to private health plans, at the expense of traditional fee for service Medicare. Seniors would end up with fewer choices, he said, not more. "I don't know how you can call that a level playing field, that's not level at all," he said."