Shelley Berkley: “Republicans were dead wrong to force American seniors to pick a private drug plan by May 15. Choosing the right plan is…”

“Republicans were dead wrong to force American seniors to pick a private drug plan by May 15. Choosing the right plan is not easy for any of us. Seniors had dozens of plans to choose from. In Nevada alone, we had 44 plans. But this decision was made even more difficult by an incompetent Bush administration that did not give seniors accurate information. The nonpartisan GAO conducted an investigation which concluded seniors were receiving bad information 60 percent of the time on critical questions concerning which drug plan cost the least based on a senior's prescription drug needs. One in five seniors are now actually paying more for their drugs than they did before they signed up. Seniors received bad information from the Bush administration, and based on this bad information, they made a very bad decision. House Democrats wanted to extend the deadline until the end of the year, giving seniors more time and preventing an unfair penalty tax from taking effect. House Republicans refused to join us in this effort, and now millions of seniors will unfortunately pay the price. ____________________”