Robert Hayes Quotations

We fear there's an overwhelming likelihood some people will be left out in the cold.

The only way to make sense of it is to use sophisticated Web tools and make sure to follow up with the plan that seems to work for you.

We're asking pharmacists to not only dispense medication, but to be a social worker, computer geek and probably a magician.

The poorest, sickest and oldest Americans face grave risk of losing their life-saving medications once the clock strikes 12 on New Year's.

Medicare is almost always on target and pays what it should. It should pay as much as needed to maintain service -- and no more.

Nearly 20 million of the 21 million people already had drug coverage. The voluntary enrollment rate compares miserably with the rate achieved in the 11-month period when Medicare was originally launched in 1966. Nearly all eligible Americans signed up for the program back then.

If the government transitions 99 percent of these men and women flawlessly, there will still be 64,000 people without their medicine come January. That cannot be allowed.

Virtually all physicians - even with a small cut in payments - will still accept Medicare patients.

Unless you have a crystal ball that guarantees you'll be healthy for the next year, you're better off signing up if you can afford it.

The (poll) numbers suggest an abysmal program. This benefit was designed to make it impossible for consumers to understand it.

The overwhelming bewilderment begins with the scores of competing plans that are being offered,

We see it as a searing indictment of this convoluted drug program. People are faced with a bewildering array of for-profit insurance plans. These plans are seen as so complex and unreliable that many people in great need of help are staying on the sidelines.

At this point, the only reliable resource is the kindness of friends and strangers.

The response has been tremendous. People hear it once, and they get up off the couch to buy the album.

There's so much complexity that in a sense the people confused by the benefit are the ones who are the most knowledgeable on Medicare. And for sure, there will be many people who will be confronted with the complexity and, sadly, they will throw their hands up and give up.

There's literally hundreds of cases like just this in our office, right now.

The secretary is confronting reality finally, and that is a good thing. We all know consumers were confused, but we had no sense the leadership in the federal government was so confused.

Somewhere along the line, something turned nasty, and I don't know what it was.

The Bush Administration's inflation of enrollment numbers disguises the problems that plague this privately-administered benefit. Deception will do nothing to help older and disabled get the medications they so desperately need.

There's a thousand different forms of confusion, but almost everyone's confused.

It's the neediest, oldest, sickest, poorest group of folks,

That sounds better than it is in operation. Medicaid patients frequently have difficulty finding a doctor, so to expect a doctor to put the time and energy into becoming an amateur lawyer is asking a lot.

The new Medicare drug benefit is 10 times more complicated than the Medicare drug discount card, ... and 10 times more important.

Increasingly, the CMS system is looking like FEMA.

In an ideal world, which is long past in this economy, physicians could sit down and become experts and counsel their patients. That doesn't happen today because there's so much time pressure on every doctor.

If you're managing a chronic illness, it's a real concern if you join a network, only to see your doctors leave later in the year.

In my humble opinion, it's the single most convoluted benefit program in American history.

His jobs were to make money, but his career was the band. It was quite a balancing act.

How many applied is kind of irrelevant compared to how many will get assistance. If they reported 3 million people enrolled in the extra help today, we would be opening the champagne bottles.

For people who can afford it, the insurance value of these drug plans is an important one.

The evidence is becoming overwhelming that the program does not work.

The handwriting has been on the wall for 25 months.

All of these things have the patient deal again and again with the trauma in a safe way, so the original trauma doesn't have the power to tap into those fears,

The likelihood of someone picking the least expensive plan is remote. Many people are taking a shot in the dark.