Posted 2/18/2006 7:37 PM
Democrats slam new Medicare drug plan
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Republicans in Congress put the pharmaceutical industry in charge when they passed the Medicare prescription drug plan, New Mexico's attorney general said Saturday.
"Big corporations ... routinely use their purchasing power to drive down prices for consumers. But the Republican Congress banned our government from doing the same" by specifically prohibiting it under the Medicare plan from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices, Patricia Madrid said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
"And rather than allowing Medicare to provide prescription drugs directly to seniors, the Republican Congress invited the health insurance industry into the process and wrote a needlessly complicated law that has confused millions of seniors and their caregivers," she said.
In addition, Madrid said, seniors are being told that if they don't sign up by May 15, "they will have to pay a complexity tax that will raise the cost of their coverage even higher."
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-18-democrats-medicare_x.htm