[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 62 (Thursday, May 6, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A PRESCRIPTION FOR CONFUSION

  (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to discuss the 
extreme frustration that our senior citizens are experiencing in 
applying for this Medicare discount card.
  This card was created from a flawed Medicare prescription bill, so it 
is no surprise that our seniors are having problems utilizing it.
  The Houston Chronicle recently published an article about how 
confusing this discount card is for seniors. The article found the 
discount card more confusing than preparing your income taxes or 
dealing with an insurance company regarding a hospital bill.
  With great fanfare on Friday, Medicare released a Web site to provide 
seniors with the ability to compare drug prices. The problem is a lot 
of our seniors do not have access to the Web site or are not 
proficient.
  Even if seniors are willing to go through the steps, it is so 
confusing that our seniors cannot make a truly informed choice.
  The story, unfortunately, gets worse for our seniors. They spend time 
and energy and brain power and choose the best card, and seniors are 
not even guaranteed that the company will hold up their end of the 
bargain. The company has no obligation to maintain its advertised price 
that is on that Web site or even carry those drugs for the full year. 
And yet our seniors, once they sign up, are stuck for that full year. 
Also, if they do not sign up now, then they lose their benefits. They 
get penalized if they do not sign up now. It is a flawed bill, and it 
is causing problems now.

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