Feb. 5, 2006 Letters to the Editor

All of us eligible for Part D Medicare have known for many months the choice was ours. Part D has 17 certified and approved providers in New Mexico. Each one of them has one or more plans; in fact there are 42 plans.

We can no longer run to the doctor, get prescriptions, then run to our pharmacist to get medications. Now we have been told awake, arise, study to see if we can find a better way — one that will help us pay for the out-of-control drug prices.

Every certified plan provider has provided phone numbers and/or contact points. These are available by looking at the 2006 Medicare Handbook or by calling the state’s Department of Aging and Long Term Care. The number is also in the handbook to get local people who have been trained on Part D.

Even more important is the multiple programs that have been held throughout the Portales and Clovis area to help us awake. Unfortunately, most of us had not even become aware we had to study and prepare and for once attempt to learn what was best for us.

Yes, Part D is something we have not experienced before. We have long had to choose our car insurance. Now the same thing is happening in the medical field. We must choose the insurance to help cover Part D.

We must awake, arise, study and then act. It never ceases to amaze me how much time and effort is spent complaining. If the same effort had been put into studying, listening and learning, most of the complainers could already have their Part D chosen and in operation.

Those eligible for Part D need to act now, select the best plan and be responsible.

The pharmacist can be your helpmate, but don’t expect him or her to shoulder your responsibility and choose your plan.

Bobbie Widner

Portales

The fact that our troops liberated millions of people escapes their view. I served in Vietnam. I saw firsthand the way people are treated when they live under a brutal dictator. It isn’t pretty.

As for weapons of mass destruction, how do you dummies think Saddam Hussein killed so many people? It wasn’t with bullets.

Our young men and women in uniform need and deserve our support.

Remember the old quote, “Farming is easy when your pen is a plow and the farm is miles away.”

Aulton Rose

Clovis