Editorials, Opinion Piece Examines Issues Related To Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Deadline

Editorials

• Baton Rouge Advocate: The Medicare prescription drug benefit "might not be right for every senior," but beneficiaries should "give the program a look before the deadline passes," an Advocate editorial states (Baton Rouge Advocate, 5/11).
  
  
• Memphis Commercial Appeal: An extension of the Medicare prescription drug benefit enrollment deadline "is the only logical and humane course of action for the federal government, which mishandled the program from its inception last fall," a Commercial Appeal editorial states. "There is simply no reason to penalize seniors who haven't made up their minds yet," the editorial adds (Memphis Commercial Appeal, 5/11).
  
  
• Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Lawmakers who have called for an extension of the Medicare prescription drug benefit enrollment deadline "should know that creating a new date certainly will not erase the problems that they say beset" the current deadline, a Democrat and Chronicle editorial states, adding that thousands of beneficiaries "would still wait until the last moment" to enroll in the program. The editorial states, "In other words, stick to the Monday date" (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 5/11).
  
  
• Tallahassee Democrat: President Bush "is too casually dismissing efforts to end a permanent financial punishment" when Medicare beneficiaries "don't conquer the enrollment options" of the prescription drug benefit before the deadline, a Democrat editorial states. The editorial states that enrollment "is far from easy for many older people," adding that the process "shouldn't add to the trauma of those Medicare recipients the insurance plan is meant to serve" (Tallahassee Democrat, 5/11).

Opinion Piece

• James Whitfield, Eugene Register-Guard: Medicare beneficiaries who plan to enroll in the prescription drug benefit should understand the "basics" of the program; collect a list of their medications, their Medicare ID numbers and the names of any supplemental or employer-sponsored health insurance policies; and compare prescription drug plans, Whitfield, director of Region 10 for HHS, writes in a Register-Guard opinion piece. He concludes that the program will "provide seniors and the disabled with the health security they deserve" (Whitfield, Eugene Register-Guard, 5/10).

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