ALBIO SIRES FOR CONGRESS

Speaker Albio Sires Calls For Federal Government to Reimburse New Jersey For Failures in New Medicare Prescription Drug Plan
13th CD Candidate Points to Program Failures that Harm State’s Seniors

(West New York) Speaker Albio Sires, the Democratic candidate in the 13th Congressional District, today called on the federal government to continue reimbursing the state for prescription drug benefits and to immediately address the mismanagement that has left eligible seniors without coverage through the new Medicare prescription drug program. A letter by New Jersey’s Medicare administrator yesterday outlined the mismanagement of the new federal program that has cost the state millions in prescription drug coverage while leaving thousands of seniors without coverage.

“As Assembly Speaker, I led the fight to fund New Jersey’s prescription drug programs and I find it unconscionable that thousands of our most vulnerable citizens have been left without coverage while the federal government continues to bungle its new Medicare prescription drug program,� said Sires. “It is bad enough that the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress put the drug companies ahead of seniors when pushing through this Medicare drug plan. Now, we find out that this bureaucracy is so mismanaged that seniors are left out in the cold while the federal government asks New Jersey taxpayers to foot the bill for its own incompetence.�

Sires pointed out that the state has already picked up $42 million in costs that should rightfully been paid by the new Medicare prescription drug program. In addition, almost 200,000 PAAD recipients were not enrolled in the new Medicare program despite their eligibility. As a result, the state continues to pick up the cost of their prescription drug coverage.

“The incompetent bungling of this program is yet another example of why we need change in Washington,� Sires added. “As Assembly Speaker, I held agencies and the state bureaucracy accountable every single day. Sadly, the same accountability does not exist in Washington today. While millionaires continue to get tax breaks from the current Republican regime, millions of elderly and needy residents are left without a safety net. I believe it is the responsibility of the federal government to provide that safety net and I am going to Washington so that bureaucrats who put our seniors at risk are finally held accountable for their disgraceful behavior.�

Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have declined to specify when and if New Jersey will get reimbursed for the costs it has incurred as a result of the federal government’s mismanagement of its Medicare program.

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