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Edited on Tue Oct-19-04 04:00 PM by Nicholas_J
Some program is better than NO program. And it was very clear that Bush would have veto'd anything that was not his program.
AARP clearly stated, pass this bill, and fix the problems in it later. such as stated in the questionaire. Close the donut hole and remove the prohibitions againt importation of Canadian drugs and reomve the prohibitions against negotiating for lower prices for bulk purchases and you have a good prescription drug plan. It is easier to get a piece of legislation passed and then repair the parts that you dont want, than it is to write and fight for a completely different piece of legislation. To amend the law would be far easier than passing a new one.
Once the donut hole, and the prohibitions against bulk purchases and reimportation from Canada is done. the windfall for American Pharmaceutical companies completely disappears. as the windfall comes from the two prohibitions. This also ends up reducing the final cost of the plan by over 200 billion dollars.
In fact, right now, there is enough support from moderate Republicans to make these changes to the existing plan, except for the Bush threat to veto it.
In the case Kerry wins the election, the amendment of the act could be done in a period of weeks, no more than a few months, while scrapping the act and writing a new one would take at least a year, possibly more.
Kerry's position is exactly the same as AARP's is, to fix whqt is wrong with the act, not to get rid of it.
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