Medicare Part D and the Affordable Care Act
The GOP’s unrelenting assault on the Affordable Care Act’s website is simply wrong. It is wrong in so many ways. Do you remember 2006? The GOP have the rollout of Medicare part D. Was that perfect? Were there significant problems? Were seniors completely confused about how to sign up and what benefits were available to them? Did the GOP decide to hold hearings and condemn the website for its many failures? No of course not.
Here’s what one representative had to say the time:
“Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches,” Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) said on April 6, 2006. “No matter what one does in life, when it is something new in learning the ropes of it, it is going to take a little adjustment.”
Of course, I love what Republican, speaker of the house, John Boehner had to say about the similarities between the two programs – “Medicare Part D is a sound, popular program that faced some technical problems when it began,” an aide to the Speaker, who requested anonymity, said on Thursday. “The ACA is fundamentally flawed, and the problems with the website are just the tip of the iceberg.”
There are a lot of things you can say about Medicare part D, a sound, well-thought-out program, clearly not. It was simply a giveaway to the pharmaceutical companies and await a way to buy off seniors. It worked. It helped to win the 2004 election.
