NYT: Senators Push to Block Medicare Deadline Penalty

[DeepModem Mom]

Senators Push to Block Medicare Deadline Penalty
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: May 16, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 16 — A powerful bipartisan group of senators announced today that they would push legislation to eliminate the financial penalty on people who sign up late for Medicare's prescription drug benefit.

The announcement came just 13 hours after the deadline for enrollment.

Bush administration officials, who have defended the penalty for the last six months, said it was premature to take a position on the issue....

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Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, chairman of the Finance Committee, and Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the senior Democrat on the panel, initiated the bipartisan effort to waive the penalty, which amounts to a permanent increase of 7 percent on all future premiums (about $2.50 a month next year).

The proposal could win quick approval, perhaps by unanimous consent, in the Senate...The outlook in the House is less certain....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/washington/16cnd-medicare.html?hp&ex=1147838400&en=e771b8fc659e1586&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. thank god for some sanity finally.

Bastards would love to penalize old sick people "for their own good". What took them so long to figure out that it was mean spirited bad idea?

[Demeter]

2. All of Dubya's Ideas Are Mean-Spirited, Bad Ideas.

They are also stupid, because every single one has backfired on him. But he's never made a mistake in his life, no sir!