Text 2306, 300 rader
Skriven 2006-03-14 23:33:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0603145) for Tue, 2006 Mar 14
====================================================
===========================================================================
Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan and Dr. Mark McClellan
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 14, 2006

Press Gaggle by Scott McClellan and Dr. Mark McClellan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Rochester, New York



10:25 A.M. EST

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay, it's another one of those McClellan brother briefings.
First, let me go through the President's day. The President had his usual
briefing this morning, before we departed.

When we land, because of the weather, we're not going to be choppering,
we're going to be motorcading. And so the first event we're going to do is
go to the school. And the President will participate in the conversation
there. And I'm going to let Mark talk more about that in a minute. And then
following that, we will go to the senior center, where the President will
visit an education and enrollment program that is going on for -- I think
about a dozen seniors will be there.

And then following that, the President is also scheduled to meet, when we
get back to the airport, with some families of fallen soldiers. I think
he's meeting with five families of fallen soldiers. Three of those made the
ultimate sacrifice in Iraq.

And then when we get back to the White House this evening, at approximately
5:50 p.m., the President has got a meeting in the Roosevelt Room with a
broad range of groups that have been helping with the education and
enrollment efforts for seniors. And we can get you more information on that
later.

Q Coverage on that?

MR. McCLELLAN: There's no coverage on that. It's just a --

Q Sorry, the meeting is at 5:50 p.m., or we're back at 5:50 p.m.?

MR. McCLELLAN: We get back at about 5:30 p.m., I think, is when we get back
to the White House.

A couple of things I want to mention before I turn it over to Mark. First
of all, when we arrive at the airport, one of the greeters that the
President is going to meet is Jason, who friends call him J-Mac, McElwain,
and his parents, and the coach of his high school basketball team,
Greece-Athena High School.

This is really an uplifting and inspirational personal story. I don't know
if you all are familiar with it. This is a senior at the high school, who
is autistic. And he had been a coach's assistant at the high school for
several years, and kind of the spirit leader for the team. And in the final
game, the coach had him suit up with the rest of the team. And toward the
end of the game the coach put him in the game. And in just over three
minutes, I think three minutes and 11 seconds time, he scored 20 points,
including six three pointers. And it's really drawn a lot of interest, both
in the community and nationally. But it's a story that's brought a lot of
pride and joy to the school and the students, and to the community, as
well. So I just wanted to point that out to you.

Q How many points did he score?

MR. McCLELLAN: Twenty points, six three-pointers.

Then a couple of items I want to bring to your attention, too. Secretary
Snow is giving a speech right now, I think it's the Community Bankers
Association. And in that speech he's going to be talking about CFIUS
reform. As you've heard me say, we support improvements and reform of the
CFIUS process. And today the Secretary is going to lay out some of the key
principles that we believe ought to guide reform. Secretary Snow is also
engaged in ongoing discussions with congressional leaders about how we can
move forward to reform the CFIUS process. We're looking at both
administrative and legislative improvements to the CFIUS process. So you
all will probably be seeing more on that soon.

And then one other item. In the Intelligence Reform Act that was passed and
the President signed into law, it included the creation of the Presidential
Privacy and Civil Liberties Board. This is a board that was set up to
advise the President to make sure the privacy and civil liberties issues
are addressed as we develop counterterrorism policies. And the Senate
recently confirmed the chair and the vice-chair of the Privacy and Civil
Liberties Board. They are holding their first meeting today, and the
President looks forward to working with the board as we move forward, to
protect the American people and safeguard our civil liberties. So I just
wanted to bring that item to your attention.

I think that's all I've got to begin with. Now I want the turn it over to
Mark, and then we'll be here for any questions.

DR. McCLELLAN: The event that the President is participating in today and
the event at the senior center are like thousands of events taking place
all over the country right now, to help seniors find out about and take
advantage of the most important new benefit in Medicare's 40-year history.

The new drug coverage is working now for millions of people of seniors and
people with a disability. More than 26 million people have coverage, more
than a million prescriptions a day are being filled, and every week
hundreds of thousands more people are enrolling in the program.

As with any program and new benefit this big, there are going to be some
transition issues. Back in January, when the program first started up, we
spent a lot of time going around the country, hearing from pharmacists and
seniors and health plans about what was working and what needed to be
improved. We found problems and fixed them, and at this point, we're seeing
much lower wait times for people who call in with questions about their
coverage; we're seeing much more complete information in the pharmacy
billing systems, and as a result, many, many more people are using their
coverage effectively.

There was a new survey released yesterday that showed seniors
overwhelmingly are having no or little difficulty using their new coverage
for the first time. Once they've used the coverage, or connected with their
drug plan, they're saving typically 50 percent or much more. Other recent
studies have shown that seniors can save even more by switching to
lower-cost generic drugs and other drugs that work in similar ways. So the
savings can be 70 percent or 80 percent or more.

The reason for the savings is that the drug plans are competing strongly to
attract beneficiaries into their programs. They're doing that by offering
large discounts on a broad range of brand name and generic drugs. They've
negotiated low prices. They're taking steps to keep costs down, and that's
why the cost of this coverage is turning out to be about 25 percent lower
than expected for taxpayers this year, and more than a third lower for
seniors. Average premiums are coming in around $25 a month, and in New York
there are plans available that cost much less than that.

The Medicare program is also bringing additional health plan options to
seniors. And one of the couples that the President is going to talk with
today are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage health plan. That's a health
plan in Medicare that offers a comprehensive set of benefits for not just
drugs, but all types of medical services. These Medicare Advantage plans
save beneficiaries typically $100 a month. And so these beneficiaries are
paying less in premiums now for coverage that is comprehensive and includes
drugs than they were paying last year for supplemental coverage without
drugs. So it's another example of how the program is saving people money.

Q How much of the President getting out there, both today, and then again
tomorrow -- he's got another Medicare event, right -- how much of that is
to counter some of the talk from other groups trying to kind of criticize
the program, maybe even suppress support for it? Why is it necessary to get
the President out there right now?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, this is a very important program for our
nation's seniors. And we've worked with Congress in a bipartisan way to
modernize Medicare, to make sure that seniors had up to date benefits, and
that they had more choices from which to choose, so that they could get the
health care that best fit their individual needs. And seniors right now are
realizing substantial savings on their prescription drugs. And so the
President is going to continue to highlight this important program, and
talk about the benefits that are available for seniors to enjoy that
haven't yet signed up for the program.

As Mark talked about, for the vast majority of seniors, this program is
working very well. But you can expect the President will continue to talk
about these important new benefits that seniors now have, and the
significant savings that they're realizing under this program.

Q But he hasn't had an event or a trip dedicated to Medicare in quite some
time. So why is he doing --

MR. McCLELLAN: We've done a number of events. And as I've said, the
President is going to continue -- this is one of the top priorities for the
President, making sure that Americans have access -- have access to
affordable health care is a top priority. This was one of the most dramatic
improvements we've made in health care in a number of years by working with
Congress. And so the President is going to continue to highlight it.

DR. McCLELLAN: With any program as large and important as Medicare, there
are going to be politics around it. People have strong views, and that's
okay. What we're focused on is making sure that each senior can find out
what the program means for them. It's not about the rhetoric, but about the
savings and the security that they can personally get by making a decision
about the Medicare drug coverage. They can do that by calling
1-800-MEDICARE any time with virtually no waiting, they can do that by
going to events like the one that the President will visit that are
happening all over the country, they can do it by going online to
Medicare.gov, or getting help from a family member. And hundreds of
thousands of seniors are doing that every week, and they're getting larger
savings than expected, and the coverage is working smoothly for the vast
majority of them.

Q What are the big trouble spots you see? Is there any group of seniors who
you're having a harder time getting the message through to?

DR. McCLELLAN: Well, we are particularly concerned about low-income
beneficiaries finding out about the extra help that they can get. The
Medicare drug coverage has no premium and will pay typically 95 percent of
their drug cost.

Historically, this has been a very challenging population to reach. For
example, the Medicaid program for seniors only has about 60 percent of
eligible people enrolled 40 years after it began. So we're very pleased
that there already are more than a-million-and-a-half low-income seniors
who have signed up for coverage, and a lot of the effort that we are
spending over the coming weeks is devoted to extra direct attempts to reach
them.

Among the people that the President will meet with later this afternoon,
are representatives, leaders from a broad range of advocacy groups that
often have very different political views, but that all have come together
because they know that this is the most important benefit for low-income
seniors in 40 years, and they're helping us get even more people enrolled.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay.

Q What is the strategy for you guys to get a strong presidential statement
out of the Security Council, especially given Russia and China's problems
with that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the discussions are ongoing. There are active
discussions that continue in New York with diplomats representing countries
on the Security Council. So we need to let those discussions continue. But
I think all nations understand the importance of preventing Iran from
developing nuclear weapons. And all nations want to see the regime in Iran
return to a suspension of its enrichment and reprocessing activities, and
see the regime cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

So we're working together. I saw comments by Russia expressing concern
about the behavior of the regime in the discussions with Russia. But we're
all working together to make sure that the regime does not develop nuclear
weapons under the cover of a civilian program.

And this is about the regime's behavior, and all of us recognize that their
behavior is moving in the wrong direction. We want to see that behavior
changed. The regime still has an opportunity to change course and come into
compliance and return to a suspension of their enrichment-related
activities and adhere to the Paris Agreement. But we still remain
skeptical, given their history, that they will.

Q But will you -- aren't you a little concerned about if there is a divided
Security Council on this, that it will weaken your hand?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that's premature to get into that kind of
discussion. The discussions right now are underway in New York. They just
recently have gotten underway over the last few days. Those discussions are
continuing about how we can move forward to address the matter.

It was reported by an overwhelming majority of the International Atomic
Energy Agency board to the Security Council because Iran has failed to
comply with their safeguard obligations and has continued to thumb their
nose at the international community and its demands.

Q If you can't even get a statement out of the Security Council on Iran, I
mean, essentially you'll have no leverage left with them.

MR. McCLELLAN: The discussions are ongoing. This matter is before the
Security Council now, and those discussions are in the early stages right
now, so I'm not going to try to speculate at this point beyond that.

And I -- one final thing, we want to wish happy birthday to Greg North --
(applause) -- and Chris Edwards.

Q Really?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes.

Q How old are they?

MR. McCLELLAN: How old are you?

Q For the record.

Q Old enough to know better.

Q You don't have to answer that.

MR. NORTH: Twenty-nine.

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me finish on Iran now that we've landed. I think that
the international community is united in its objective of preventing the
regime from developing a nuclear weapon. All of us want to see the regime
come into compliance with its safeguard obligations and return to a
suspension of its enrichment-related activities.

You know, again, I know that the regime would like to try to shift the
focus away from their behavior and on to other things, but all of us are
keeping the focus where it belongs, and that's on the behavior of the
regime.

Q Have you gotten any assurances from Russia and China with respect to
supporting the United States?

MR. McCLELLAN: The discussions are ongoing with diplomats that are part of
the Security Council process.

Okay? Thank you.

END 10:40 A.M. EST

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060314-5.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)