Town Hall Meeting on Medicare

Once again, President Obama hosted a town hall meeting to discuss health care reform. This time it was held at a Senior Center in Maryland, with most of the focus being placed on the changes in Medicare.

As mid-term elections approach, President Obama was looking to shift focus away from the oil spill and place it on health reform and its positive aspects.

The televised town hall meeting focused on the $250 check Medicare recipients will receive to help cover some of the “doughnut hole” gap in prescription drug coverage, which will reach about 80,000 people in the first round. Other initiatives mentioned included efforts to combat scams aimed at the elderly and to cut waste and fraud from Medicare by the end of 2012, just two years away.

Many seniors are skeptical as to how the Affordable Health Care Act will affect their Medicare coverage.

The president still continued to insist that the new law will create new benefits, new cost savings and increased quality of care, despite what other studies have shown. He will continue to hold these national town hall meetings to show the advantages of the new law.

The public relations effort is an attempt to move past a year of hearings, speeches and protests. Neither Republicans nor Democrats see the health care reform fight as over just yet. Republicans vow to continue fighting the law until it’s repealed, while Democrats are bringing in White House officials to brief Congress on how to explain the law to voters and increase its popularity.