Press Release             

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deane Beebe
Communications Director
Medicare Rights Center
212-204-6219
dbeebe@medicarerights.org

January 16, 2004

Presidential Candidates Respond to Medicare Rights Center Questionnaire Five Democrats Stake Positions on Key Consumer Issues

Five Democratic presidential candidates responded to a Medicare Rights Center (MRC) questionnaire this month, expressing positions on nine Medicare consumer issues.  Participants in the survey as of January 16, 2004 included Senator John Edwards, Senator John Kerry, Representative Dennis Kucinich, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun.

Candidate responses as of January 16, 2004 are available online: http://medicarerights.org/QuestResults01142004.pdf 

The questionnaire (with one-page background briefs) is also available online: http://www.medicarerights.org/MRC_Candidate_Questionnaire.pdf

MRC identified the nine issues based on consumers’ calls to its free helpline.  “Although Washington has focused on the new Medicare drug benefit this past year, there are many other issues of life-and-death importance to people with Medicare,” said MRC President Robert M. Hayes.

Senator John Edwards, Sen. John Kerry, and Representative Dennis Kucinich are distinguished as supporting all nine consumer reforms.  “We applaud Sen. Edwards, Sen. Kerry, and Rep. Kucinich for their bold leadership as defenders of older and disabled Americans,” Hayes declared.

All five responding candidates supported four reforms:

• Eliminating the 24-month waiting period for people with significant disabilities to get Medicare coverage;

• Making Medicare cover outpatient mental health care at 80% of its approved rate, as Medicare does for all other outpatient medical services;

• Expanding Medicare’s coverage of durable medical equipment (e.g., wheelchairs) to include devices needed to function outside the home; and

• Guaranteeing people who have Medicare because of disability the same right to access Medigap policies as people who have Medicare because of age.

MRC, still accepting candidates’ responses to the questionnaire, challenged the remaining candidates—including President Bush—to express positions on the nine questions.  “People with Medicare deserve to know where candidates for their nation’s presidency stand on these critical issues,” Hayes said.

At the time of this release, the Bush-Cheney campaign had not responded to the questionnaire. The Dean campaign issued a broad statement which addressed some issues in the survey. The Clark and Gephardt campaigns reported that they were continuing to work on their responses.

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