[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27635]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FIX MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN

  (Mr. BISHOP of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, over the past 2 weeks, I hosted 
five town hall meetings in my district. They were attended by hundreds 
of seniors who wanted to learn more about the Medicare drug benefit. I 
found that for as much interest as seniors demonstrated, it is readily 
apparent there is an equal amount of confusion, frustration, cynicism, 
and in some cases even anger.
  Seniors do not understand why there is such little time to sign up 
for the benefit or why they will be locked into a plan when the plan 
does not have to commit to them. But we should not be surprised by a 
benefit whose design was the result of ideology trumping practicality.
  It is obvious that an enormous portion of the benefit needs fixing 
and that it will take a tremendous effort to make seniors have access 
to the affordable lifesaving drugs that they deserve.
  Step one should be extending the May 15 sign-up deadline. Step two 
should be dropping the penalty for late sign-up. Mr. Speaker, I 
strongly encourage my colleagues to support such measures.

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