US seniors clash over Rx drug benefit

4 June 2001

The Seniors Coalition and Citizens for Better Medicare have held a rallyto counter the one held by the new Alliance for Retired Americans calling for a Medicare prescription drug benefit (Marketletter June 4).

TSC has condemned the ARA's "pro-government, one-size-fits-all" approach to the benefit. Group chairman Mary Martin says most retired union members and survivors already have medical insurance with prescription drug coverage, which is "the same type of benefit we would extend to those seniors who lack coverage. Unions have fought hard to secure these benefits for workers, but the ARA's big-government approach would replace these plans with a bureaucratic nightmare."

The ARA plan would mean"busted budgets in Medicare and decisions about drug coverage made by some Washington bureaucrat or, at best, a local social worker," she said, adding: "simply tacking on a prescription drug benefit to the current Medicare program would be like throwing a 40-pound weight to a drowning man."

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