Editorial

When it came time to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, someone forgot to remind the Bush administration of the old adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

It isn’t that old dogs don’t want to learn new tricks, it’s just that they’ve seen most tricks, new and old, and they know what works and what doesn’t.

That was clearly the message from local AARP members and other seniors who recently gathered to hear state AARP officials defend the organization’s key supporting role in the passage of the Bush-pushed prescription drug benefit.

Also on the dais at the senior center in Edmonds was a representative from the Alliance for Retired Americans, which opposes the plan as enacted. While the Alliance official did a good job of listing concerns with the plan, his two counterparts from AARP knew their fight was with the audience.

A key theme in many of the comments involved concern over the billions of dollars the Bush plan directs toward private industry to help make serving seniors profitable. The seniors in attendance said they know they cost more to keep healthy. They said they’ve been through the revolving door of HMOs that tried to make a buck by offering plans under the “Medicare + Choice” program. They said they know the difference between the motives of a social program and turning a profit.

After the meeting, one AARP official said another complaint was that the organization’s support for the new benefit virtually handed the 2004 election to Bush. The thinking is that because the percentage of seniors who vote is far greater than for other age groups, they’d likely go along with the AARP support of the plan and the man.

The Alliance offical said he was concerned the issue would divide the senior vote and political power. If the Edmonds meeting is any indication, seniors will stay a united voice, for anybody but Bush.