Poll on the Medicare issue of those over 55. Taken Nov. 18, 19.

[madfloridian]

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/socialsecurity/medicarebasics/ns11192003.cfm

SNIP..."Nov. 19—By an almost two-thirds majority, senior Americans say Congress and the White House should work for a better Medicare prescription drug plan than the one offered in a bill the House and Senate are set to vote on this week, according to a new nationwide survey. Only 19 percent of those polled say Congress should pass the current bill.

Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted the poll of voters ages 55 years and older Nov. 18–19 for the AFL-CIO after details of the bill—merged from earlier House- and Senate-passed versions—were released.

Respondents overwhelmingly view the drug plan unfavorably (65 percent to 26 percent), and a whopping 78 percent say the legislation does not do enough to protect retirees now covered by employer-provided prescription drug plans....."

This part is where we fall. This will enable our former employers to eventually drop us, though we pay $200 a month each. The government will "subsidize" them a while, so they will be paid double....the insurance companies that is. Then they will stop the payments and they will drop us.

[gristy]

1. I am incredibly heartened by those poll results

Seems a lot of people are paying CLOSE attention!

[neverforget]

2. Maybe, just maybe, this victory for Bush will actually backfire on

him. I'm not counting on it but seniors do pay attention and they do vote.

[reprobate]

3. You bet your ass we do. And we are pissed.

This will not be a positive for bush by a long shot. Remember that we vote in much larger percentages than do the younger folk.

[0007]

23. The Claw Back" - The Donnut Hole"

Here's the Claw Back



This senior is awake and pissed

[madfloridian]

24. Excellent!

Great job.

[Kanary]

31. What is "donut hole"?

I heard that before, and don't get it.

Kanary

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. WHOA!

Can you say "TOAST?" Bush is toast and I hope to hell the Senators are voted out of office and we take back congress! They NEED to pay, BIG TIME for this!

[madfloridian]

5. Noticed not one station used this poll tonight.

They did give more coverage to the issue, but they did not have anything like this.

Help me kick this a while, and maybe we could share it with them?

[Kanary]

11. What do you have in mind?

I'm ready to kick..... whatever.

I live around a large bunch of seniors......... and I, sadly, would bet that not many, if any, of them have any notion of what this is all about, and how it actually affects them. While I agree that a lot of seniors are very savvy, and not easily fooled, there is also a large group who simple believe what they are told, and obey accordingly.

So, if you have any potent ideas for getting something like this in the news, that would be great.

Kanary

[madfloridian]

16. Call or email your local news, send an email to national news outlets.

Sometimes they really pay a lot of attention to a single mail on a topic, more than you think.

[Kanary]

20. good idea

Actually, I "know" one of the reporters on one of those local, weeklies..... hmmm.....

I try not to dump a lot on her, and save it for the big stuff... but... maybe she's in the mood for an indepth on this one....

Thanks for getting me thinking.... I'll give this some thought...

Kanary

[Gloria]

6. THINK "Catastrophic Insurance Repeal" and let our candidates

make this an issue in 04!!!!!

[Kanary]

8. Language!

As much as I hate game-playing, it's time... well *past* time, for us to use the language against them. Instead of talking straight, and getting over-powered, we're going to have to come up with some potent words.

So, rather than all the wasted time and air over Michael Jackson, et al, how 'bout we get started?

Kanary

[TacticalPeek]

13. Oh, you mean the Republican Catastrophic Prescription Plan?

:)

[madfloridian]

7. Confusion, skepticism overshadow hope among elderly for Medicare bill

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/24/national1427EST0602.DTL

SNIP...."Maxine Amodeo is dealing from a dog-eared deck of cards at a senior citizens center, tossing out opinions as fast as face cards. "Congress can't be trusted with Medicare," she says.

"We all need the prescription drug benefit. We can't afford going on like this," the 68-year-old retiree says, her gray-haired playing partners nodding their heads in agreement. "But who the devil knows whether this mess they're passing in Washington will help us here in Iowa?"

Over hands of Skip-Bo and cups of black coffee, Amodeo and her friends spoke Monday of a desperate need for help that the Republican-controlled Congress might deliver with a $400 billion Medicare reform bill backed by President Bush.

But any optimism is overwhelmed by confusion, skepticism and an unsettling sense of detachment -- that Washington is changing their lives as they speak, but they have no idea how......"

[Cleita]

9. Umm, one station said that AARP said

that the majority of their members polled in favor of the bill, which is why they backed it. Excuse me, but no one polled me nor my husband and we have been members for over twenty years. Did anyone get polled by AARP? Inquiring minds need to know.

[sexysenior]

12. No way!

Neither my husband nor I were polled by AARP. Not only that, but I sent out emails to several different senior groups with whom I am associated, and not one of them were polled, either. Of course, many of us had already cancelled our membership as soon as AARP announced its support, and you can bet those folks were not asked, nor were they counted in the poll numbers.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi sexysenior!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[oasis]

29. a kick for the "Trojan Horse" medicare bill.

[madfloridian]

28. Hi, welcome.

We got our membership dues mailed to the Alliance for Retired Americans today. We have a lot of forms to give out at a Democratic meeting tomorrow night.

http://www.retiredamericans.org/

I spent over 30 minutes on the phone waiting to drop our AARP membership and get a refund. It was worth every moment, and my husband yelled at them across the room. Loved it! We are not the yelling type either.

:evilgrin:

[Kanary]

14. AARP lied?

Imagine that.

I *really* resent having to become so cynical!

Kanary

[TacticalPeek]

15. The rigged AARP "push poll"? The one claiming a fishy 75% support?

A look at the AARP survey itself (available in a PDF file) reveals that AARP misrepresented the results in its article. Of the 494 members surveyed in what was touted as a "nationally representative sample, with a margin of error plus or minus 4.4 percentage points," it becomes clear, contrary to AARP’s claims, that those members surveyed did not conclude and could not have concluded that the new Medicare package would in any way help low-income elderly and those with high prescription drug costs.

The survey simply shows that AARP and its pollster worded the question in such a way that it creates the illusion of support. It brings to mind Karl Rove and his Rovian methodology.

First of all, the members polled could not have concluded that the Bill does in fact "help low-income elderly" because 62% of those polled said they were either completely unfamiliar with the Medicare Bill or were not very familiar with the specifics of the Bill. Only 2% felt they were very familiar with the Bill and 35% reported they were merely "somewhat familiar" and 1% refused to answer the question!

In order to ask a question of a group of people who are overwhelmingly ignorant of the subject, the pollsters had to educate the polled members—in other words, the pollster hand fed the answers they wanted to hear.

So the pollsters proceeded to remind those being polled that Medicare does not presently cover prescription drugs. Then the pollster boiled the complex bill down to three sentences. They tossed in another four sentences describing the benefits to the poor and those with high drug costs. Thus the pollsters created the "knowledge-base" for 97% of those who were polled.

Then the pollster asked the following question:


"Even if this plan won’t affect you personally either way, do you think it should be passed so that people with low-incomes or people with high drug costs can be helped?"

more
http://community.aarp.org/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=rp-legislative&msg=3442.1&ctx=1


Hell, that pitch could almost make me say yes.

(stole this from atrios.blogspot.com)

[madfloridian]

17. Thanks, Tactical Peak, that is what I was looking for.

SNIP..."First of all, the members polled could not have concluded that the Bill does in fact "help low-income elderly" because 62% of those polled said they were either completely unfamiliar with the Medicare Bill or were not very familiar with the specifics of the Bill. Only 2% felt they were very familiar with the Bill and 35% reported they were merely "somewhat familiar" and 1% refused to answer the question!....."

That is it. Someone posted this at AARP soon after the poll came out.

Thanks to Atrios for pointing this out. And thank you for finding that.

[Cleita]

19. Thanks TacticalPeak. I have copied this to my hard disk.

[madfloridian]

22. That is from the Yuricare report, Katherine Yurica....see link.

She has the most wonderful website!
http://www.yuricareport.com/index.html

Scroll down to enter. It is a gallery, and has articles as well. She cuts right to the heart of the matter.

[Kanary]

10. Kudos to you, madfloridian!

You've obviously spent a lot of time and energy, and not a small amount of frustration, on this issue.

You've galvanized a lot of people, helped us to get the information which was hard to find, and pushed us all to take action instead of grousing.

Ya done good!

Thanks soooo much for all your efforts!

Kanary

[madfloridian]

18. That is what being mad does for one! LOL

I like to put my energy into stuff like that rather than bash. Although some do draw me into their hate stuff, I must admit.

[Kanary]

21. I know one of the 26%

He just said that having seen that Hillary and Daschle are against it confirmed for him that he was right in reporting it. How's that for critical thinking? Amazing that people will vote against their own interests so blindly!

All I replied with was two of our state's very conservative reps, who voted AGAINST it in the House.

Give me strength...

Kanary

[0007]

25. Listening to the Senate floor

R- John Ensign of Nevada just announced he'll vote against the Medicare bill.

We got a another repuke! Yipeeeeeeee!!!!

[0007]

26. Don't ever ever give up on this one folks!

Bill Nelson D-Florida is not gonna vote for it!

[madfloridian]

30. Good critique from the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Bad Medicine

SNIP...." Picking up the tab for high-priced medicines will force the deficit even higher over the coming decade. If the Bush tax cuts become permanent, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects annual deficits of at least $150 billion through 2013.
Along with those concerns, some opponents of the bill are rightly worried about a plan to establish six test projects where the traditional Medicare program would compete with private insurers. In the past, such privatization, in the form of Medicare HMOs, has led to higher premiums....."

[Kanary]

32. Insight

from the hotbed of radical leftists...

Utah. ~~goofy grin~~

Thanks, I really needed that!!

Lots of good quotes here.

Kanary