Drug plan even confuses Medicare, Reid says

A mistake in a handbook shipped to all Medicare beneficiaries to help them choose among prescription-drug insurance plans has given Democrats new ammunition to charge that the GOP-crafted Medicare drug benefit is too confusing for older Americans to understand.

The error could have a direct negative impact on the poorest Medicare beneficiaries. The handbook, called “Medicare & You” and sent out every year, mistakenly tells beneficiaries that if their incomes are low enough to qualify for an extra subsidy for their medication costs every drug plan is available to them with no monthly premium. In fact, only some of those plans do not charge a premium.
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“This mistake underscores the need for legislation to delay the application of the late-enrollment penalty. … If the folks at Medicare can’t get it right on the first try, seniors deserve extra time to make the right choices,” he said.

Democrats bitterly opposed the bill that created the drug benefit in 2003 and favor using the government directly to administer the new coverage. They have consistently charged that the benefit is complicated, that seniors and the disabled on Medicare will not sign up, and that the real reason for using the private sector to run the benefit is to pay back health insurers and drug makers for their support of the Republican Party.

“Given these skewed priorities, it’s no wonder that the people at Medicare got confused,” Reid remarked.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/100605/medicare.html

but the Medicare plan he signed and backed is the opposite of simple.

Likely its just another corporate welfare scheme.