Pickering touts Medicare reforms in visit to Newton

By Staff
SPECIAL GUEST U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering, right, talks with Newton attorney Bill May and Newton Mayor Hamp Beatty at Tuesday's meeting of the Newton Rotary Club. Pickering was the guest of Newton County Bank President Wilmer Whittle, center. Photo by Robbie Robertson/The Newton Record
By Trisha Niswander / The Newton Record
Nov. 26, 2003
NEWTON U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering on Tuesday said fresh congressionally-enacted reforms would help sustain Medicare over the long term and benefit recipients.
Pickering, who spoke to members of the Newton Rotary Club, said a prescription drug benefit added to a Medicare bill would offer recipients immediate relief in purchasing prescriptions.
He called the prescription drug benefit a desperate need for many of the country's seniors, and said an immediate 25 percent discount was likely. In two years, many seniors in Mississippi who have the most need will only be required to pay a $2 to $5 co-pay for needed medications. Others will get, on average, a 40 percent to 50 percent reduction in cost, Pickering said.
Pickering said Medicare reimbursements will total about $25 billion over the next decade.
The 3rd District Republican congressman said the reforms were necessary to sustain the Medicare program over the long term.
Pickering called the vote a "vote of conscience" for many and said the president himself worked the phones during early morning hours to secure needed votes. The House passed the bill by a scant margin, only after the vote was held open for about three hours as House Republican leaders lobbied many of their own.
Positive view
Pickering opened his speech with expressions of thanks and recognition of the blessings the country as a whole enjoys, alluding to the blessings of liberty, freedom and of safety.
Pickering presented a positive view of the future of Mississippi, saying it was at the strategic heart of the fastest-growing region in the country, from Dallas to Atlanta and from Tennessee to Gulf of Mexico.
Base closures
On another topic, Pickering said he has introduced a bill that would remove pilot training from the list of programs that could be impacted by the 2005 round of military base realignments and closures, or BRAC.
He said the bill would help ensure that communities with pilot training bases, such as Meridian and Columbus, would not have to go through the expense, emotion, anxiety and turmoil of fighting a closure if it was not necessary. The fate of his bill was not immediately clear, but Congress has previously adopted the approach that it can only vote up or down on a full package of reductions presented by a base closure commission.
Pickering also said the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is scheduled to tour military facilities in Mississippi within the next two weeks.