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01-02-06,9:57am
America’s seniors are strongly dissatisfied with the Bush administration’s Medicare prescription drug plan, according to a new poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.
The survey, conducted Dec. 1–4, 2005, shows 49 percent of seniors are dissatisfied with the drug plan, while only 28 percent are satisfied. Another 23 percent say they still don’t know enough about the plan to offer an opinion. Among those who do have an opinion, a whopping 63 percent say they are dissatisfied with the Medicare drug plan and just 37 percent are satisfied, according to the poll.
Seniors Likely Will Pay More for Medicare Under New Drug Plan
The new Medicare law—passed by Congress in 2003 after a series of strong-arm tactics by the Bush administration—makes the most sweeping changes to the popular program since it was created 38 years ago. But to receive prescription drug coverage, seniors must join HMOs or other private health plans. At the same time, the law forbids Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices. The result, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, is higher out-of-pocket costs for the average senior covered by Medicare.
Enrollment in the new plan began Nov. 15. Across the nation, seniors say they are frustrated and confused by a jumbled array of competing plans. Insurers are spending millions to market their plans on TV, and their aggressive tactics have triggered numerous consumer complaints.
“The circumstances would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so dire,” says George J. Kourpias, president of the senior advocacy group the Alliance for Retired Americans. “The lawmakers who created this mess should get their drug coverage this way and see how they do.”
Health Care Tops Public’s Concerns Among Domestic Issues
Overall, the Hart poll found that some 56 percent of voters think the United States is on the wrong track domestically—and they point to health care as their biggest concern. Fully 69 percent of the public surveyed says the nation is on the wrong track regarding health care. The number rises to 76 percent among Independents and 72 percent in the so-called “purple states,” those states closely contested in the 2004 election with relatively equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.
The public’s dissatisfaction is reflected in their views of Congress. Some 73 percent say they would disapprove if their members of Congress voted against a bill to protect seniors from the kind of large Medicare premium increases the drug plan has created.
Because so many voters are dissatisfied with the positions of Congress and President Bush on working family issues, the public strongly supports a change in the leadership of the nation, the poll reveals. By the largest margin in 11 years of similar Hart polling, voters say they would prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress: 45 percent to 34 percent.
As part of the AFL-CIO’s “Who’s On OUR Side Campaign” to hold members of Congress accountable for the choices they made this year on issues vital for working families, the federation on Dec. 13 issued working family report cards. The report cards score the performance of members of Congress in five areas: jobs and wages, retirement security, health care, tax fairness and education. Within these categories, the AFL-CIO examined the votes cast by members of Congress on trade, the minimum wage, job creation and community wage standards, child labor standards, protection for overtime pay, the freedom to form unions, pension and Social Security protections, Medicaid, health care, consumer protections, tax cuts for the wealthy, student loans and funding for public education.
In coming months, working families will hold workers’ roundtables, grassroots mobilizations and other actions to put elected leaders on notice that they need to support issues that matter to working families. Throughout 2006, Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, will talk with an average of 25,000 working families each week on the issues that matter to them. (Updated: December 14, 2005)
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