Todd Eachus- You Must Be Stopped With These Outrageous Claims

Todd,

Here goes. Your latest press release on your website states "Eachus plan to expand senior prescription drug coverage introduced in House" .

Quote: "Eachus, who has been a major voice for seniors in the state House for more than 12 years, said his legislation (H.B. 1676) would enhance the quality of life for an additional 30,000 seniors in Pennsylvania who are struggling to make ends meet in today's difficult economy.

Let's review two significant events that I believe totally contradict your assertions.

1) Case in point- let's roll back the tape to your 1998 campaign advertisement-

Voice Over

"One elected official kept his promise- State Todd Eachus"

"He promised to restore PACE benefits to thousands of our senior citizens for lifessaving prescription drugs."

"Todd Eachus delivered. The House overwhelmingly adopted Todd Eachus's amendment to raise PACE income limits for seniors."

Marty Berger: "To get a Bill through the House is a rare accomplishment for a fresheman legislator. We thank Todd Eachus for his hard work."

Todd Eachus: "I fought hard for this legislation. With the huge budget surplus seniors should not lose their PACE benefits."

"Reelect State Representative Todd Eachus leading the fight for senior citizens."

Uhhh.. let's talk about Todd Eachus's work.

Here is a chart depicting the dismall results of Todd Eachus's legislation.


Ohh...but there is more...In 2006 Todd Eachus took ownership for passing legislation that was supposed to add 120,000 seniors to PACE bringing the figure 430,000.

Look at this press release as reported on the PRN Newswire.

"This plan allows Pennsylvanians to get the best features of both PACE/PACENET and Medicare's prescription drug plans," Governor Rendell said. "PACE opened for business on July 1, 1984, and passage of this historic legislation is a very fitting way to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of this life-sustaining program. I thank the Legislature for its support of this program, which is so vital for so many seniors."

PACE Plus Medicare combines the state's popular PACE/PACENET program with the new federal Medicare Part D prescription drug program to ensure that as many as 420,000 Pennsylvania seniors don't pay a dime more for their drugs than PACE/PACENET required them to pay. Under the bill, PACE/PACENET will "wrap around" the federal program and fill gaps in the coverage.

"By having the federal government share in the cost of providing prescription coverage to seniors, we will be able to save significant Lottery funds - nearly $170 million in the new fiscal year alone - to invest in other essential services for older Pennsylvanians," Governor Rendell added. "We expect that the savings will allow an additional 120,000 seniors to enjoy PACE Plus coverage."

In this press release from the governor's office dated February 3, 2006 it states "Expanding prescription drug coverage for Pennsylvania seniors was one of my first priorities when I became Governor, and we did that. Today, more than 303,000 Pennsylvania seniors have coverage for essential medications through PACE, an increase of nearly 50 percent over three short years. While people talked about a national prescription drug program in Washington, we acted in Pennsylvania, creating the largest state prescription drug plan for seniors in the nation.

“Because Pennsylvania will be sharing the cost of prescription drug coverage under the new federal plan, we will be able to cover an additional 120,000 seniors, bringing total enrollment under PACE Plus Medicare to nearly 430,000 seniors. We think we’ll be able to attract people who meet current income guidelines, but use few prescription drugs and never bothered to enroll. And we will be able to do that at about half the cost of what we had previously been spending, giving us the ability to plow an estimated $180 million in savings back into other services for Pennsylvania’s seniors.”

One press release states they will save $170 million, the other $180 million. By July, 2006 the number of seniors on PACE and PACENET climbed to 317,000 according to a Department of Aging press release but before the legislation was law.

Call the Bureau of Pharmaceutical Assistance at 717-787-7313. The current figure is around 314,000 enrollees. That means there were no net gains for the last two years despite the Commonwealth saving $340-360 million dollars.

You can listen to Todd Eachus talk about the Medicare Plus Pace legislation here from 7/7/2006. Questions remain about the money saved by the legislation and where it was spent.