Tom Harkin: “it is time to shed some light on the Medicare prescription drug proposal advanced by some of my colleagues on the other…”

“it is time to shed some light on the Medicare prescription drug proposal advanced by some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and by their nominee for President, Gov. George Bush. Unfortunately, there is a big TV ad campaign being waged across the country to deceive and frighten seniors about the Medicare prescription drug benefit proposed by Vice President Al Gore and the Democrats in the Senate. So I want to set the facts straight. First, let's examine Bush's ``immediate helping hand.'' That is what Governor Bush calls his Medicare proposal. Quite simply, it is not immediate and it doesn't give much help. Will it be immediate? The answer is no. His plan for Medicare would require all 50 States to pass enabling or modifying legislation. Right now, only 16 States have any kind of drug benefit for seniors. Each State will have a different approach. Many State legislatures only meet once every 2 years. So for Bush's plan to go into effect, the State has to pass some kind of enabling legislation. Well, our most recent experience with something like this was the CHIP program, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which Congress passed in 1997. It took Governor Bush's home State of Texas over 2 years to implement the CHIP program.”