Bush speaks about Medicare
The president made two trips on his brief three-hour stay in mid-Missouri. He went to a retirement center to visit with members, and then he led the forum informing seniors about his new Medicare plan.
Published April 14, 2006
JEFFERSON CITY —
Jefferson City resident Dana Strohmier requested tickets as soon as she found out he was coming.
Strohmier said she didn't want to wait. She wanted her daughter to see the president.
President George Bush visited mid-Missouri on Tuesday to tout his Medicare plan. Bush spoke about his plan in Jefferson City.
"I came in not knowing what Medicare was, and so I learned a lot about that," high school junior Ashley Strohmier said. "I enjoyed his comics and the way he was acting. It made him seem like a real person."
Dana Strohmier also said she plans to get her mother information about the Medicare plan and try and sign her up for one of the 42 programs.
MU sophomore Nick Pretnar said he had a completely different reason to see Bush.
Pretnar, dressed as the pope, held a sign and stood along the street to protest Bush's arrival.
"Actually, I had the costume at Halloween," Pretnar said. "I take it to Speaker's Circle sometimes; it gets people's attention."
Although protestors were allowed to stand on the street next to the Etta & Joseph Miller Performing Arts Center where the president gave his speech, "A Conversation on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit," they were not in sight of the president when he drove to and from Air Force One.
"Bush is very deceptive," Pretnar said. "Two people can't do anything alone, but it was nice to come out here and make a small difference. Sometimes when your ideas are outside of what most people think about the government you feel like you're going crazy. It is nice to see all these other people to know that others feel the same way."
MU freshman Daryl Steinberg said this was the first time he had protested an event that the president attended.
"I went to protest the government in general," Steinberg said. "I don't know if we got anything done as a group, but I feel better about myself."
The president made two trips on his three-hour visit to mid-Missouri.
He went to a retirement center in Jefferson City to meet with residents and then led a forum that informed seniors about his new Medicare plan.
The goal of the visit was to help senior citizens better understand new Medicare options before the May 15 sign-up deadline.
"Healthcare is a vital issue for this country. In my best judgment, the best healthcare plan is one that says we'll help the poor, we'll help the elderly and we'll make sure the doctor-patient relationship is solid for the rest of us," Bush said. "But our government made a commitment to our seniors, and it's a commitment that I intended to keep when I went to Washington, D.C."
Senators Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., attended the event and were introduced at the beginning of the forum. Hulshof said he liked having a panel discussion with people who are on the new program.
The panel consisted of three senior citizens, a nurse, a pharmacist and the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"I thought it was good that the president was just the moderator," Hulshof said. "The real story was Helen, Bob, Gerald and the others on stage."
Bush also addressed the problems the new Medicare system presented when it began in November, such as confusion from picking a provider from many different plans and choosing what services one will get from Medicare and Medicaid. Medicaid is a federal health coverage program for low-income Americans, where as Medicare is only available to senior citizens.
"By the way, when you put 29 million people right off the bat into a system, you're going to have glitches. But they've handled the glitches. They're working with your governor, they're working with the state government to work on dual eligibles. I know you read initially about the issues related to the sign-ups — we're dealing with them. His job is to run them down, find those problems and solve them," Bush said speaking of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The senators present said they appreciated the president's candor about past problems.
"When you have a million seniors a week trying to sign up, you get growing pains and glitches. I don't think they anticipated the flood of interest," Hulshof said. "But the president acknowledged that, and they're trying to fix it."
Jefferson City councilwoman Edith Vogel said because she worked as a nurse for 18 years, she understood and sympathized with the president.
"The president's ratings are down, but I don't think that means he's doing a bad job," Vogel said.
Jefferson City resident Heather Morris said as a member of Missouri's Republican Party, she wanted to volunteer at the event to see the president.
"We helped out shuttling people from the parking lot," Morris said. "I thought he was funny. I thought it was a good idea to have people who have to live with the high cost of healthcare speaking on the problem."
Although Bush was in mid-Missouri to speak about Medicare, some area residents took the visit as an opportunity to make their views known.
At Columbia Regional Airport, 45 Columbia residents with Mid-Missouri Peaceworks carried signs and protested Bush's arrival. The group's director, Mark Haim, said he was excited by the media attention and wanted to protest Bush's policy decisions.
"I think essentially that it's important that wherever President Bush goes there's a peace presence with people saying 'stop the war' in order for him to see that and the public to see that," Haim said.
Haim also said it was an opportunity to make a statement to the Missouri politicians in attendance.
"He wasn't there alone, he was there with Jim Talent, Kit Bond and Kenny Hulshof, and two of those three are running for office," Haim said. "They know that for everyone there, there's 200 or 300 more that feel the same way. We're going to hold our elected officials accountable for a failed war policy."
