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U.S. Newswire 8 Mar 11:55 HHS Secretary Thompson Promotes Medicare Modernization To: National Desk Contact: HHS Press Office, 202-690-6343 FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today toured a Florida nursing and rehabilitation center to urge support of Medicare reform and President Bush's Immediate Helping Hand prescription drug proposal. During his visit to the Manor Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Wilton Manor, Secretary Thompson commended the Medicare program but said that it can no longer meet the needs of seniors in today's health care environment. "When the system was created thirty-five years ago, prescription drugs were not the integral part of health care that they are today. Consequently, drug coverage was not included in the Medicare package," Secretary Thompson said. "Today, no one would purchase health care coverage without prescription drugs, and we shouldn't expect our seniors to accept a health care plan without access to prescription drugs." As a first step toward improving and modernizing the Medicare program, President Bush has put forward an Immediate Helping Hand (IHH) prescription drug proposal that would provide for immediate funding to states to allow for interim prescription drug coverage for those beneficiaries who need it most. This immediate assistance will give states the temporary financial support they need to protect beneficiaries with limited incomes or very high drug expenses and no other alternative for drug coverage until Medicare reform is achieved. The IHH proposal is a temporary plan to help the nation's seniors who most need assistance with their prescription drug costs. The Bush Administration believes that comprehensive Medicare reform must be enacted at the same time as a prescription drug benefit. In support of this, President Bush's budget calls for a commitment of $153 billion over the next 10 years for Medicare modernization to help improve the financial health of the program and to add a prescription drug benefit for all Medicare beneficiaries. The budget blueprint that President Bush released on Feb. 28 proposes new and innovative solutions for meeting the challenges that face the nation. It seeks to enhance the groundbreaking research conducted at the National Institutes of Health through a funding increase of $2.75 billion, the largest increase in research funding ever. This commitment will support research into discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, heart disease and stroke that afflict millions of seniors and other Americans. The budget also seeks to strengthen the health care safety net of those most in need by proposing an increase in funding for community health centers of $124 million this year -- a first installment in a goal to increase the number of these centers by 1,200 and double the number of people served by the year 2006. The proposals in the President's budget reflect the Administration's commitment to a balanced fiscal framework that puts discretionary spending on a reasonable and sustainable growth path while protecting Social Security and other priority programs, paying down the national debt, and providing tax relief for all Americans. --- Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0308-114.html *********