Timothy H. Bishop: “over the past 2 weeks, I hosted five town hall meetings in my district. They were attended by hundreds of seniors who…”

“over the past 2 weeks, I hosted five town hall meetings in my district. They were attended by hundreds of seniors who wanted to learn more about the Medicare drug benefit. I found that for as much interest as seniors demonstrated, it is readily apparent there is an equal amount of confusion, frustration, cynicism, and in some cases even anger. Seniors do not understand why there is such little time to sign up for the benefit or why they will be locked into a plan when the plan does not have to commit to them. But we should not be surprised by a benefit whose design was the result of ideology trumping practicality. It is obvious that an enormous portion of the benefit needs fixing and that it will take a tremendous effort to make seniors have access to the affordable lifesaving drugs that they deserve. Step one should be extending the May 15 sign-up deadline. Step two should be dropping the penalty for late sign-up. Mr. Speaker, I strongly encourage my colleagues to support such measures. ____________________”