Sherrod Brown: “this week enrollment began for the prescription drug discount cards available for the Medicare bill passed last year.…”

“this week enrollment began for the prescription drug discount cards available for the Medicare bill passed last year. For some seniors in my home State of Ohio, this could mean $600 in prescription drug benefits. That sounds great. We want seniors to look into these cards. If they can get help, that is obviously a good thing. However, the real story about these cards is found in the details. The discount drug cards will further complicate an altogether too confusing process for America's seniors. Instead of implementing a prescription drug benefit under one program, Medicare, which serves 39 million American beneficiaries, the administration fought to create an unnecessarily complex system that diverts money away from benefits and gives it to drug companies and the insurance companies. The drug companies under this legislation, this new law, according to bipartisan studies, will profit $150 billion more than they are already making, and at the same time, this bill gives a $46 billion subsidy, a $46 billion direct subsidy, taxpayer dollars, to the Nation's insurance industry.”