[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2006)]
[Pages 888-889]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Reporters in Coconut Creek, Florida

May 9, 2006

    The President. I want to thank you all for joining us. I'm proud to 
be here with Secretary Leavitt. We're traveling the country

[[Page 889]]

reminding people that there's a fantastic opportunity for our seniors, 
and that is, Medicare now offers a prescription drug benefit that will 
save people a lot of money.
    We just visited with some of our citizens inside there, and they're 
talking about significant savings. And that's what we want; we want our 
seniors to be able to have modern medicine. So far a lot of seniors have 
signed up. It's coming down the stretch toward the May 15th deadline; we 
want everybody to sign up. We want people to understand that they're 
going to save a lot of money when it comes to prescription drugs.
    And I appreciate Secretary Leavitt's hard work. One of the things 
that our seniors have got to understand, that if you qualify for extra 
help in the program, if you're a low-income senior that qualifies for 
extra help, the May 15th deadline doesn't apply to you, you'll have time 
to take a look--we want everybody signing up. And if you're a low-income 
senior, you get--the Government pays about 95 percent or more of your 
prescription drug benefit. So it's worthwhile for people to look.
    I want to thank groups like the AARP, NAACP, many in the faith 
community, community-based groups, all for working hard to educate 
seniors as to what's available. This is a good deal for America's 
seniors, and I'm proud to have signed a law to modernize Medicare, and 
I'm proud to be working with Michael.
    I also want to thank Congressman Foley and Congressman Clay Shaw for 
joining us. They're strong backers of Medicare reform. They were 
informing me that a lot of their citizens have signed up. In south 
Florida, people are taking advantage of this program. And I strongly 
urge people to take a look and see what's available.

[At this point, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services 
Michael O. Leavitt made brief remarks.]

    The President. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you all very 
much, I appreciate it.

Note: The President spoke at 8:53 a.m. in the OMNI Auditorium at Broward 
Community College. The transcript released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary also included the remarks of Secretary Leavitt. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of these remarks.