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Hi All, It's wonderful Sandy that you are taking initiative on this important legislation. And the sample letter makes the letter writing task easier for all of us. I have some questions. Unfortunately, I have not kept up on prescription drug legislation. So I went to the Congressional web site http://thomas.loc.gov and searched on "prescription drug". I found oodles of different bills related to prescription drug plans in various stages of the legislative process. I thoht, how do we tell which are better and which to support? I can't read, understand, and compare all these bills, so I started to look for someone else who might. I found strong opinions pro or con: The Consumers Union is quite down on HR 4680 (the House version of S2807?), saying it "fails to assure affordable, comprehensive prescription drug coverage for all Medicare beneficiaries. It lacks public accountability, and assures that there will be future special interest requests from insurers. It is destined to confuse consumers and to lead to a complicated marketplace with incentives for cherry-picking the healthy. It fails to guarantee fair prices for beneficiaries." See http://www.consumersunion.org/health/hr4680dc600.htm I found a web site for Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which compares 1. President's Proposed Prescription Drug Benefit 2. The Medicare Expansion for Needed Drugs (MEND) Act of 2000 (S. 2541) Introduced by Democratic Senators Daschle, Moynehan and Kennedy. 3. The Republican bill H.R. 4680. According to the Bazelon Center, mental health advocacy groups "give qualified support to the White House and Democrats' plans but express grave concerns about the Republicans' proposal." See http://www.bazelon.org/600medicare.html for more. An organization called the Rural Policy Research Institute provides extensive detailed discussion of S.2753—"Medicare Expansion for Needed Drugs (MEND) Act of 2000" introduced 6/19/2000 by Daschle. S.2342—"Medicare Modernization Act of 2000" introduced 4/4/00 by Moynihan on behalf of President Clinton, as modified by the mid- year budget review published by the Office of Management and Budget. S.2758—"Medicare Outpatient Drug Act of 2000" introduced 6/20/00 by Graham. H.R.4680—"Medicare Rx 2000 Act" introduced by Thomas and passed in the House on 6/28/00. S.2807—"The Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2000" introduced 6/28/00 by Breaux. S.2836—"Medicare Rx Drug Discount and Security Act of 2000" introduced 6/30/00 by Hagel. It's a lot of detail, perhaps too much. See http://www.rupri.org/pubs/archive/reports/P2000-8/ There are many other web sites of various organizations with recommendations on these bills, and probably Murray Charters will find them all for us. So now, in addition to the question of which bill(s) are best there is the question of how to evaluate the evaluators! I don't want to get all bogged down in detail, but before plunging in, I think we need to know which bill(s) will do the best job for us and the practical question of what is possible to get passed. Should we support S2807/HR4680 because they are our best chance for anything at all, or try to pick the best bill and support that one, or what? Phil Tompkins Amherst, Mass age 62/dx 1990