Democrats Blast Republican-AARP Medicare Plan at AARP Forum

When an AARP television ad -- part of a $7 million campaign designed to help push the measure through Congress -- was played in the hall, there were scattered boos and hisses from the 800-strong audience.

AARP Executives Gives Republican Medicare Bill Its Blessing

Starting in 2006, the government would subsidize separate insurance policies and private health plans that covered part of their drug costs. Patients could sign up for either one if they paid about $35 per month and a $275 yearly deductible.

In addition, the agreement would try to steer more Medicare patients into private health plans, including preferred-provider organizations and health maintenance organizations. Under a central compromise, part of the effort to steer people away from the traditional fee-for-service version of the program would take place through an experiment in six metropolitan areas in which the original program would be forced into a direct price competition against private plans.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), widely considered the party's most influential senator on health matters, said AARP had erred, as he redoubled his attacks on the agreement. He singled out a provision that would allot private health plans $12 billion more than either the House or Senate envisioned in the Medicare bills they passed in June. He called the money "a slush fund" that would make Medicare patients "guinea pigs" in an untested form of care.

Several Democratic presidential candidates matched his tone. Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) branded the agreement "a raw deal for America's seniors and a corporate giveaway for HMOs and drug companies." Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark said, "The bill coming out of Congress violates the basic principle of the Hippocratic oath -- do no harm."