How Many People Signed Up Is Important Because...

Just wondering, how many people signed up for the President's new, bigger-government, program disguised as the CMS?

So I worked with the Congress and we've modernized Medicare, and for the first time, seniors can now get a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. And that's what we're here to talk about: the benefits of such a program; the need for people to, at the very minimum, take a look to see whether or not that program makes sense, and if it does make sense, to sign up on it. You'll hear me make the case: It's a good deal. Now, don't take my word for it. I would hope people would seek advice, seniors seek advice as to whether or not it's a good deal. Twenty-six million seniors so far have taken a look and said, I think it's worthwhile to sign up.

Let's see. So far we find out from this little PR Junket, conducted at a good deal of American Taxpayer expense, we see the number of new enrollees is established at 26 million.

THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm the emcee. (Laughter.) You're the explainer. (Laughter.) You know how these PhDs are, you know, they kind of -- (laughter.)

DR. McCLELLAN: That's right. Well, we had more than 20 million people start in this program at the beginning of January. And January is always the toughest time for pharmacies anyway; a lot of people changing coverage. And some of the people starting the program didn't have all their information in the computer systems, especially some people with Medicare and Medicaid who had previously been getting their drug coverage from Medicaid. And we saw some long wait times on the health lines for the pharmacies and the health lines for beneficiaries.

But we went out, we talked to pharmacists like Diane. We went around the country. Secretary Mike Leavitt from HHS, as well, was leading this effort to find out what was working, what wasn't, and what needed to be fixed, and we've been doing that.

So, here we see the first discrepancy pointed out by Scotty McMessage McClellan's brother, the Good Doctor in charge of CMS. The number is more like 20 million.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. Thirty -- 26 million people have signed up. That requires a lot of community effort around the country. And I want to thank Susan and others who just make sure the opportunity is at least presented in a way that people can make a choice. And the amazing thing about our country is we've got a lot of really decent souls, like Susan, at the community level who are very concerned about somebody else, that they want to help somebody. And one way to help somebody is to let seniors know about the opportunities available in this Medicare reform.

And you're signing up quite a few people, I understand.

MS. WILBER: We've had quite a few people sign up initially.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. How's it going?

MS. WILBER: It's going well. There was a little bit of confusion at first, but --

So, the President is now confused about the number himself - is it 30 or 26 million? Or is it closer to 20 Million, as the good Doctor McClellan suggest? Why is this number important? How did they reach this number in the first place and is there somewhere that I can check it's veractity? Does the very fact that this many people have signed up for a new, bigger-government program that didn't exist before mean it is successful?

Again, I ask that all seniors who are bloggers who have experience with this new benefit, please share your stories as comments to this post. I would be curious to see how the actual end user views this program. Is it as successful as the W, Rove and Co would have us believe?