Will Medicare Part D enrollment deadline be extended?

From KFF/The Hill

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said that he has adequate support to pass abill that would extend the enrollment period for the new Medicareprescription drug benefit until Dec. 31, 2006, The Hillreports. Under current law, Medicare beneficiaries have until May 15,2006, to enroll in the prescription drug benefit without penalty.Nelson spokesperson Brian Gulley said, “We are going to try to attachour language to the first available vehicle when we come back inJanuary.” He added, “It would be the quickest way to get our languagepassed, as opposed to having to go through the committee gantlet. Wehave to get this thing passed as quickly as we can.” Last month, Nelsonattempted to attach the bill as an amendment to a budget reconciliationpackage, but the legislation failed to receive the 60 votes required towaive a stipulation that ruled the amendment out of order; senatorsvoted 51-47 to waive the stipulation. According to Gulley, the voteindicated the bipartisan support required to pass the bill. “As thevote reflected, we had bipartisan support, and we will be able toobtain a majority when we run this amendment to a bill not dealing withthe budget,” he said. All Democratic senators present — as well asSens. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), George Voinovich(R-Ohio), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), ArlenSpecter (R-Pa.) and John Warner (R-Va.) — voted to waive thestipulation. However, a “strong lobbying push from the Bushadministration” could change some of the votes in the future, accordingto the Hill