TAMPA, Fla. — Six days before the enrollment deadline for the Medicare prescription drug program, President Bush visited a sprawling Florida retirement community Tuesday, acknowledging the concerns created by the program but emphasizing: "We want everybody to sign up."
The president defended the multiple choices that have confused those eligible for the program, and he stuck by his decision not to extend its Monday deadline, which applies to all potential beneficiaries except those qualifying as low-income. Participants can still enroll after the deadline, but they will be charged higher premiums.
"We have changed Medicare for the better, but sometimes change creates anxieties," Bush told about 250 people at Sun City Center, a 16,000-resident retirement community about 25 miles south of Tampa. "The more choices you have, the more likely it is you'd be able to find a program that suits your specific needs. In other words, one size fits all is not a consumer-friendly program."
Despite long-standing complaints that the program is too complicated -- prompting repeated demands that the signup period be extended -- more than 30 million of the nation's 43 million Medicare beneficiaries are now receiving Medicare-related drug coverage, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday.
But the public attention that Bush is paying to the concerns about the drug program is again demonstrating the political weight of the nation's senior citizens, whose complaints about the administration's proposals to overhaul Social Security helped torpedo that plan last year.
In the end, said Dan Bartlett, Bush's top communications advisor, "I think it's going to be value-added" for Republican candidates. "As more and more people dispute the myths and see the benefits, it will sell itself," he said.
Besides, said Bill Frenzel, a Republican who represented a Minnesota district in Congress and who now studies economic and political issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Bush's low poll standings have him reaching for whatever issues may help.
"When you're at 33% or 35% approval rating, you use whatever assets are available," Frenzel said. "This one may not be a typical Republican asset for President Bush, but it's out there and he should use it."
In his remarks at Sun City Center, Bush said he anticipated the anxieties that followed the introduction of the program.
