Chris Murphy: “I thank the distinguished doctor from Georgia for yielding to me and for your important information for our colleagues…”

“I thank the distinguished doctor from Georgia for yielding to me and for your important information for our colleagues and really for our Nation to understand the importance of the Medicare prescription drug plan. Some of the things said will bear repeating several times over the next few weeks, and one of the points I want to talk about, as you have discussed as well, is misinformation that is sent out about this plan. Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches. All of us, when our children were new, well, we knew as parents we didn't exactly know everything we were doing and we had a foul-up or two, but we persevered and our children turned out well. No matter what one does in life, when it is something new in learning the ropes of it, it is going to take a little adjustment. But as we were signing up 27 million seniors at a rate sometimes approaching 400,000 a week, the system wasn't always perfectly ready for all of them, and there were some glitches, particularly for some folks who were dual eligible. But the point is HHS or Medicare responded, put extra people on board, worked out some of the glitches, and I am pleased to say that many of the seniors that I talked to are very pleased with this program. As a matter of fact, I was recently giving a town hall meeting, there must have been 200 people in the audience there, and I asked how many of them have yet to sign up for a Medicare plan? Not a single hand went up.…”