Statement By 60 Plus Association President James L. Martin

Arlington, VA — “I salute Frontiers of Freedom that has issued a report entitled “Prescription for Fear” which documents an outrageous scare campaign by numerous elected leaders against the new prescription drug benefit.  The report details how these elected officials, in their own words, have tried to keep seniors from enrolling in a program that promises as much as $1200 in benefits to a low-income senior ($2400 for a low-income couple) for prescription drug purchases.

“For years, America‘s seniors have desperately needed more affordable access to prescription drugs.  That’s why Congress and the President last year passed a program to help them — a new benefit that offers millions of elderly poor a helping hand with their medication.

“It’s a boiling outrage that so many elected officials have schemed to keep seniors from saving money on their prescriptions.  These seniors have worked hard all their lives and played by the rules.  They shouldn’t have to cut their pills in half to save money because some self-righteous politicians have scared them away from accepting the $1200 federal prescription drug benefit.

“Politicians who talk of ‘cheating old people’ and putting a ‘dagger’ into Medicare are gambling with seniors’ health needs for narrow political demands.  Our parents and grandparents deserve these new medication benefits offered by the federal government. And it’s contemptible that so many politicians, who talk about helping seniors, are actually using them as convenient pawns for their own political ambitions.”

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