Confusion, skepticism overshadow hope among elderly for Medicare bill
'It's all politics'
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An AARP member burns his membership card to protest the organization's endorsement of the Medicare bill.
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CNN's Bill Hemmer speaks with Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson about the White House's promotion of the bill.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on senators heading for a showdown over a sweeping new Medicare bill.
CNN's Kathleen Koch on the Medicare bill passed by the House.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Maxine Amodeo is dealing from a dog-eared deck of cards at a senior citizens center, tossing out opinions as fast as face cards. "Congress can't be trusted with Medicare," she says.
"We all need the prescription drug benefit. We can't afford going on like this," the 68-year-old retiree says, her gray-haired playing partners nodding their heads in agreement. "But who the devil knows whether this mess they're passing in Washington will help us here in Iowa?"
Over hands of Skip-Bo and cups of black coffee, Amodeo and her friends spoke Monday of a desperate need for help that the Republican-controlled Congress might deliver with a $400 billion Medicare reform bill backed by President Bush.
But any optimism is overwhelmed by confusion, skepticism and an unsettling sense of detachment -- that Washington is changing their lives as they speak, but they have no idea how.
In more than two dozens interviews with elderly Iowans -- a state with the nation's fourth oldest average population behind Florida, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- voters said both parties seem more concerned about the bill's impact on the 2004 elections than its effect on cash-strapped elderly Americans.
"I'm a Republicans and a conservative, but all I hear is whatever the Republicans like the Democrats hate and visa versa," said Bill Landstrum, a retired insurance adjuster sipping coffee at a local mall with his wife and friends. "It's all politics."
Bush and Republican lawmakers hope voters give them credit for adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, a Great Society program that Democrats have long used to political advantage. Though the drug benefit would not take effect until 2006, discount prescription cards would go to elderly voters well ahead of the 2004 elections.
"Once the bill passes, we need to explain to seniors how it has helped -- that in six months we'll be putting a prescription drug card in their hands," said Carl Forti, spokesman for the House Republicans' campaign committee.
Democrats such as Rep. Leonard Boswell of Iowa who voted against the bill will face withering attacks and political ads from Republicans armed with district-by-district statistics on the legislation's impact.
Democrats promise to criticize the president and his allies for a bill that they say is packed with giveaways to drug and insurance companies while cutting benefits to the elderly.
"Their argument is hogwash," said Kori Bernards, Forti's counterpart at the Democratic campaign committee. "Most seniors already have prescription drug cards, and we have faith that seniors are smart voters -- and we know that they'll come to know that this vote won't do them any good."
Outside Washington, state officials are uncertain about whether the bill will do any good.
"It's so horribly complicated," said Mark Haverland, director of the Iowa Department of Elder Affairs and an appointee of Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack.
"For many of us who watch this thing closely, we're sort of alienated because much of this has happened without our input. We don't understand it, and nobody seems to care that we don't understand it," he said. "I guess they don't want us to get know about the bill so we won't get in the way."
AARP endorsement
Haverland said confusion has reigned since the AARP endorsed the bill, after expressing disapproval of it for weeks.
"Everybody got whiplash because of that," he said. "We rely on them to help us understand Washington politics."
The AARP, traditionally a Democratic ally, says the bill is not perfect but it is worth passing because of the first prescription drug coverage. The endorsement upset some of its own members and potential recruits.
"There are too many guys at AARP looking out for their own self-interest, not mine," said Mel Winjun, 70, a retired eyeglass maker.
The AARP endorsement reflects a broader shift in the political landscape. After decades of voting primarily for Democrats, older Americans are increasingly Republican, a trend that experts say may continue as the baby boomers replace the generation raised during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.
Indeed, only the youngest of the retirees interviewed here expressed even qualified support for the Medicare bill.
"It's better than nothing," said Sara Landstrum, who is in her 50s and was shopping with her husband. "It's a start. Get us Medicare coverage and then work out the kinks."
A poll released Monday by the National Annenberg Election Survey reflected that trend with only 33 percent of those 65 and older wanting the bill and 49 percent opposed to its passage. The results were based on interview with 860 adults Wednesday through Sunday night. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Back at the senior center, Amodeo's playing partners brought the issue into focus.
Mary and George Lamatta, both in their 80s, said they recently faced a $1,000 bill to repair their car -- far too much for a couple paying $300 a month for medicine on a fixed income.
"I told my husband, we won't be able to eat," she said.
Luckily, their friend and fellow card player, Lyle Clark, has a good pension and benefits.
"He gave us $200," Mrs. Lamatta said, nodding at Clark across the table, a hint of embarrassment in her eyes.
"It was nothing," Clark said. "I wish Washington could do more."
Copyright 2003 The
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