Mark Dayton: “I will be introducing my Unshackle Seniors Act, which will allow seniors and others who are on Medicare to purchase…”

“I will be introducing my Unshackle Seniors Act, which will allow seniors and others who are on Medicare to purchase their Medicare discount cards as they choose and to cancel their participation with full refunds and other returns whenever the cards are changed in their coverage or their discounts. As you know, last year Congress passed a prescription drug coverage plan that was far different from the Senate-passed version which I supported. I voted against the final conference report after voting for the Senate bill. I did so for several reasons, but one was the excessive delay until the actual program would begin, which necessitated these drug discount cards being made available until the program begins in January of 2006, which is over 2 years after the bill's passage. Until then, seniors are going to be able to sign up for only one, just one drug discount card and only one for that entire year, even though the care plan providers can change the coverage and the amount of the discount they are choosing. What kind of deal is that, where seniors are stuck with one card for the entire year, but the plan can be changed at the discretion of the provider, yet seniors can't change theirs accordingly?”