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American Morning
New Year, New Medicare; Lizzie's Katrina Diary; 'AM Pop'
Aired January 02, 2006 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Doesn't the park just look beautiful?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's dog-walking time, so be careful when you walk through the park later, if you know what I mean. Always look where you walk in the park.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Miles, for ruining what was really quite a picturesque little scene there.
M. O'BRIEN: Otherwise, idyllic, here I am messing things up, so to speak.
Medicare, would that there were a pill to take to understand the new Medicare prescription plan.
S. O'BRIEN: It's complicated.
M. O'BRIEN: Forty-seven options, and you can't even get to the site because it's overwhelmed by people who are confused. And so we're going to try to sort it out for you. We've got some -- an expert here who will give you some basic points to get you through this.
You know, it's changed. It's new and a lot of it is just trying to get accustomed to it.
S. O'BRIEN: We're trying to understand it.
Also, 'tis the season, as they say, for all those new shows to come in that are replacing those shows that, for lack of a better word, just weren't very good the last season.
M. O'BRIEN: So out with the bad, in with the mediocre.
S. O'BRIEN: In with the mediocre. We're going to actually -- who knows if they are mediocre. Maybe they're all fabulous. We're going to update you and actually take a look, see how they -- how they fare, how they rank ahead this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
Kelly Wallace is always boffo (ph) for us. She's here with some more stories for us.
Hello, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, you are so kind. Hello to you.
And hello, everyone.
We're beginning in California, where we have massive rain in California's wine country. A new round of storms is flooding homes and vineyards in northern California.
Tens of thousands of customers are now without power. Entire farms in Sonoma County are under water. People who had been battling wildfires in the southern part of the state are now under a flash flood alert, and at least two deaths are being blamed on these storms.
To the Southwest now, where fires are the major problem. In Oklahoma, a wildfire destroyed several homes on the northeast side of Oklahoma City. Dry and windy conditions have been hurting efforts to get things contained there. Oklahoma's government has asked President Bush to declare an emergency in his state.
And take a look at this. Literally looks like a ring of fire. Fire crews outside Dallas battling a 35-mile-long fire. Some parts of the fire said to be up to three miles wide.
In Atlanta now, where a doctor is optimistic about an upcoming surgery for a 3-month-old Iraqi baby. The baby is known as Baby Noor.
The baby, along with her father and grandmother, arrived in Atlanta this weekend. The baby has Spina Bifida, a birth defect that affects her spine. An Atlanta doctor says his team has done this sort of procedure many times, but it's usually done days after the baby is born.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROGER HUDGINS, WILL PERFORM SURGERY ON INFANT: What's happened now is that in Baby Noor, skin has actually grown up over the defect. Typically, in a newborn, you can actually see the spinal cord on the skin. When I examined the baby, I actually couldn't see it because skin has actually grown over the top of it. That will make the surgery more implicated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Still, the doctor says her probability of surviving the surgery is very high. The baby's medical care is being provided for free. She's expected to undergo surgery next Monday.
And no more "hunkering down." Nope. Nope, you can't say that anymore in 2006, because it's one of the phrases banished for misuse, overuse, and general uselessness. This all according to Lake Superior State University, which came up with 17 most overused words and phrases.
The list also includes "first time caller," "talking points," Dawg," "holiday tree," and this one is a problem for us, Miles, "breaking news." Apparently that's misused, overused, and we should ban it. But I don't think we'll be banning it in '06, do you? M. O'BRIEN: It puts us in a linguistic bind, doesn't it?
WALLACE: Yes, it sure does.
M. O'BRIEN: News that is happening now, something important we need to tell you. It just doesn't fit on the screen very well, that little banner down there.
WALLACE: It doesn't.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Kelly.
Older Americans can now get prescription drug coverage under a new Medicare plan that took effect Sunday. But as CNN's Chris Huntington explains to us, many of those eligible for the drug benefits are just plain old confused.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Lee and Mike Temares thought signing up for Medicare prescription drug benefits would be a cinch.
MIKE TEMARES, MEDICARE RECIPIENT: I thought, from reading all of the literature when this plan first came into effect, I thought I had it knocked.
HUNTINGTON: The president had joked about it.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You've got to fill out a form.
HUNTINGTON: And TV ads featuring Fred and Ethel made it look easy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fred, you still need to do the Medicare drug plan.
HUNTINGTON: Mike is 69 and no stranger to contracts as an advisor on reversed mortgages. Lee, 66, is a rare book dealer and completely at home on the Internet. But they were baffled by having to choose from 47 different drug plans offering a dizzying array of premiums, deductibles and coverage options.
LEE TEMARES, MEDICARE RECIPIENT: The Medicare site only lets you compare three plans at one time. So I started figuring out the math and how many times I would have to do that, and I said, "Forget about it. I'm going to bed."
M. TEMARES: I don't know how to handle it.
HUNTINGTON: Mike tried calling the Medicare help line but says he was put on hold for three hours. Lee couldn't get on the Medicare Web site.
L. TEMARES: "We're currenting experiencing high traffic. Please try again later. Sorry for any convenience."
HUNTINGTON: Their frustration is not unique. Robert Hayes, who runs the Medicare Rights Center, says millions of seniors are having the same trouble.
ROBERT HAYES, MEDICARE RIGHTS CENTER: People in their 80s, in their 90s, people with severe disabilities, with cognitive impairments are being asked to figure out which of 40, in some cases, 50 or 60 different plans are best for them. They can't do it.
HUNTINGTON: Most of those eligible for the new drug plans have until mid-May to sign up. The concern right now is for seven million Medicare recipients who are also very poor and, therefore, on Medicaid, which used to cover their prescriptions.
They've been automatically enrolled into one of the new plans and should have been notified by now. The fear is that that new plan may be worse than what they already had.
DENISE SOFFELL, COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY: They're going to go to the pharmacy on January 2 and who knows what's going to happen. They may or may not know what plan they are in. They may or may not know whether the drugs that they are currently taking are covered by the plan that they were randomly assigned into.
HUNTINGTON: Medicare administrators insist they're looking out for those who might get lost in the shuffle.
LESLIE NORWALK, CENTER FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES: We've worked very closely with all of the plans to make sure that they have appropriate transition policies.
HUNTINGTON: As for Mike with and Lee Temares, they did finally pick a drug plan, and it's better than no coverage at all. They're just not convinced it was worth all the trouble.
M. TEMARES: I don't think it's anyplace near where it should be.
L. TEMARES: Or what it could be.
HUNTINGTON: Chris Huntington, CNN, Manhasset, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Well, did we settle that for you? Probably not quite yet. So let's continue on.
Diane Archer founded the Medicare Rights Center in 1989, and she serves as the group's special counsel. She looks at Medicare issues in detail, and she's probably got a headache this morning after all this.
Diane Archer, good to have you with us.
No less than 47 separate choices. I think people are just plain confused this morning as to what they're supposed to do. Can you give us -- you know, if you're on Medicare this morning and you feel like you're paying too much for drugs, what do you do?
DIANE ARCHER, MEDICARE RIGHTS CENTER: Well, first of all, if you have drug coverage already through an employer or through some other means, probably it's better than this drug.
M. O'BRIEN: So stay with that?
ARCHER: So you can keep that.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
ARCHER: Confirm it is at least as good, and if it is, stay with that.
Now, you should take this drug benefit seriously, because even though it only covers a piece of your drug costs, it doesn't cover everything that you might want it to cover, it does help you pay for your medications. And so that's an important reason to be looking carefully at this drug benefit.
M. O'BRIEN: Why is it so confusing? Is this just typical federal government coming up with a program and it comes out in a very convoluted way?
ARCHER: Actually, it did not need to be this confusing. Had it worked like regular Medicare, you would have just been automatically been signed up, you would have gotten the drugs you needed when your doctor prescribed them, you would have known what you were paying. But the federal government decided to make this benefit a privately- administered benefit.
You have to sign up with a private drug plan in order to get it, and each one is different. They're not standardized.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So the idea to bring the private sector in, I suspect, would be to try to save taxpayer money. Does that really work out that way?
ARCHER: Actually, it's less cost-effective, because what Congress did is it forbade Medicare from negotiating drug prices and it let these private dug insurance companies figure out what they're going to pay for and try to negotiate prices. But they don't have the leverage. So what people are seeing is still very high drug costs through this drug benefit.
M. O'BRIEN: Of course, in theory, there is a lot of competition there between all these private entities. It doesn't work out that way, though, does it?
ARCHER: It's not looking like it is. I mean, that's what I think is driving people crazy. They're looking at their drug options and they're saying, wow, I'm still going to have to pay quite a bit of money for my drugs, even with this benefit.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's try to boil this down into something less than 47 options here. ARCHER: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: Four things you can do this morning. Number one, know your options. That's not an easy thing just to know the options.
ARCHER: Right, because there are so many of them. You're going to want to go to the medicare.gov Web site, and you can sort of sift through them.
You want to understand if you pick one option what you're going to have to pay out of pocket and whether you're going to be able to fill your drugs at the pharmacy that you frequent. I mean, you want to -- some of these plans only work at certain pharmacies. And so you want to be sure that you can get the drugs you need.
M. O'BRIEN: It helps to be Internet savvy at all ages these days.
Number two, look at it seriously. In other words, don't discount it even if you're healthy, right?
ARCHER: Don't discount it even if you're healthy, because insurance is about tomorrow and not only about today.
M. O'BRIEN: Do your homework. An important thing.
ARCHER: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: And that's sort of related to what we just talked about. But you really need to understand all these things.
ARCHER: Right. And that means also that after you've gone to the government's Web site to see what your options are, you want to call the drug plan that you think may meet your needs just to confirm that things are as you think they are.
M. O'BRIEN: It sounds like a lot of time in a hold hell, as they say.
Final thought. Let's get it up here again, that medicare.gov site. And there's medicarerights.org. Tell us what you can find there.
ARCHER: On medicarerights.org is the Medicare Rights Center site. We have answers to hundreds of questions that people are asking us on a daily base. Check it out. It should answer a lot of the questions that you have.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's hope.
All right. Diane Archer, thanks for helping us sort it out. I'm sure we'll get through it one way or another.
ARCHER: Thanks for having me.
M. O'BRIEN: All right -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Here's something for you to take a look at. And we filed under the category of "why the heck do people do this?" The polar bear plunge.
This is Boston Harbor. Do you have any idea how cold it is in Boston Harbor? There you go, cold. Look at that woman's face. Cold, cold, cold.
The dip in the water, of course, is this annual New Year's Day tradition for Polar Bear clubs around the world. The Coney Island Polar Bear Club, not to be outdone, there they are there. Why do they always wear skimpy bathing suits, too?
Anyway, this club started in 1903, said to be the oldest Polar Bear Club in the country. There they are running into the water.
Then to Germany. They had to break the ice -- OK, this is a sign you should not be going in that water -- because they wanted to plunge into the water. There are the folks lined up waiting for the ice to be broken.
Ooh, that looks refreshing, doesn't it? The people in Germany call their winter swimming club the Berlin Seals. I'm sure that hat is keeping him so warm.
(LAUGHTER)
S. O'BRIEN: Weather now. And mark it down, Chad Myers is back on Thursday. Bonnie Schneider helping us out. She's at the CNN Center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, Dick Clark, as we all know, a New Year's Eve fixture for just absolutely decades, until last year, when he had a stroke and he was out ill. Well, once again, he was the host for ABC's Times Square show Saturday night.
The ever-youthful Clark talked about the stroke a little bit, about that's what kept him from last year from welcoming folks to the big celebration.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CLARK, NEW YEAR'S EVEN HOST: Thank you, Ryan. It's really good to be back with you again this year.
Last year, I had a stroke. (INAUDIBLE) bad shape. (INAUDIBLE) had to walk and talk all over again. It was a long, hard fight.
My speech is not perfect, but I'm getting there. Now, you and I have been a part of each other's lives for so many New Year's Eves that I wouldn't have missed this for the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: That's nice to see. Look at all those folks out there. Gosh, that's tough, though.
M. O'BRIEN: He's having a hard time, but he's -- you know, he's there.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: I give him credit for being there.
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. And I see him, you know, struggling to get it back to 100 percent, or however close he can get it back. It's only been -- what is it, 11 months, really, or a little over a year that he had the problem. What a great guy.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: And he stayed inside for all of the festivities while the co-anchors co-hosted it.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And then Ryan Seacrest kind of did the heavy lifting. But he's entitled.
S. O'BRIEN: Right.
Ahead this morning, we're going to check in with a friend. Lizzie Maloy, remember here? She's a teenager who has been keeping a video diary for us ever since Hurricane Katrina hit her hometown. Well, this morning, she's going to show us what the holidays were like in Long Beach, Mississippi.
M. O'BRIEN: Santa was there. We know that.
And later, a look at TV's new winter shows. Which mid-season replacements are worth watching? "AM Pop" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: As you can imagine, it's certainly been a very different holiday season on the Gulf Coast this year. Let's take this time to check in with Lizzie Maloy.
Remember Lizzie? She is our high school senior from Long Beach, Mississippi. She has been joining us with regular updates.
Hey, Lizzie. Nice to see you. She's in Biloxi.
LIZZIE MALOY, LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Hi, Soledad. How are you?
S. O'BRIEN: I'm doing all right. How are you? And how is your family? And as you say good-bye to '05, which I'm sure you're glad to do, and look forward to '06, how was your holiday?
MALOY: Oh, very much so. Well, my holiday was great, I have to say. It was -- everything is hard, but it was good. It was good. We had a lot to celebrate about, and we did.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, you did. You have a healthy family. I got to meet some of your family members over Thanksgiving when you came to visit with us.
Let's talk about some of the pictures, because as you know, you are our roving photographer with your little DVD cam that we send you out there with. First, your high school. You -- this high school had a drive, didn't you, and did a photo display, too?
MALOY: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Tell me about that.
MALOY: Oh, well, no. We had -- we had a Christmas present drive which was different than the photo display.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, well, we're looking at the photo display, Lizzie. So tell me about the photo display. What's that?
MALOY: Oh, OK. That was -- the Midel Steel Corporation (ph) who adopted Long Beach to help us rebuild, they put on a festival for our city, a festival kind of thing where we could just get together to celebrate Christmas, drink hot chocolate together and kind of enjoy each other's company. And that was wonderful of them to do. And Santa came to give out presents.
S. O'BRIEN: So this -- I was going to say, because we've been showing some pictures of Santa and some kids. Maybe we can roll that tape right now that you took. And Santa was there.
MALOY: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: What was that like? I mean, I've got to imagine for the little ones, you know, for whom Santa is super-duper important, like my kids, how are they doing?
MALOY: Well, you can imagine, for kids who lost just about everything to be able to receive Christmas presents from Santa is wonderful, because it's little things like that that are keeping -- keeping their hopes alive. Remembering that there is -- there are good people and there are good things in life still, because it's hard for them. It's hard for everybody. And you can imagine how difficult it is for little kids.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, one can imagine. And, you know, I think, you know, when you say the gifts, it's not just the gift, it's remembering or realizing that people care, because you did this gift drive at your school as well.
MALOY: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: Tell me about that, Lizzie.
MALOY: Well, Buford, South Carolina, as well as Port Orange, Florida, all gave Christmas presents to every child in Long Beach, including high-schoolers, including middle-schoolers. We were -- we were allowed to pick the four things we wanted most for Christmas, and people in those cities adopted us and gave each of us Christmas presents.
So over the holidays, I spent a lot of my time kind of organizing the presents and giving them out. And that was -- Soledad, that was absolutely amazing.
S. O'BRIEN: Was it? Why? Why? Tell me why.
MALOY: Because you saw -- you saw -- you saw moms crying because they received bikes for their kids. And they don't have anything else, and they couldn't afford them. So for them to -- for them to get presents for them to give their children, it was just -- it was real good.
S. O'BRIEN: You look like you're about to cry a little bit there yourself, Miss Lizzie Maloy. Let's talk a little bit about the rebuilding. I see it's a very foggy day behind you.
MALOY: Oh, it is.
S. O'BRIEN: And there's still a lot of devastation behind you, too.
MALOY: Well, this is the...
S. O'BRIEN: Do you think -- are things on track at all?
MALOY: Well, actually, I was -- I was a little disheartened this morning because I live -- I live in Long Beach and we're filming in Biloxi now. So I had to drive about 45 minutes along the coast to get here.
And things aren't -- things aren't as good as I thought they would be, because I haven't been south of the tracks because it's really hard. You don't -- it's not really fun to go down and look at your city not there anymore.
But it really is going to be OK. And I don't really mean to sound negative. It's just that it was difficult to drive this morning, because we are keeping -- we're keeping hope alive and we're staying positive, and things are going well. It's just -- it's difficult.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet it's difficult. Well, keep that DVD camera. Let us know if you need more batteries or whatever we need us to send you, because we want you to keep us updated...
MALOY: I will.
S. O'BRIEN: ... with your diary and giving us some insight into how things are going. Say hi to your mom for me, OK?
MALOY: I will. Thank you, Soledad, very much.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Lizzie Maloy.
MALOY: Happy New Year.
S. O'BRIEN: And same to you, Sunshine. Happy New Year -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: If I know her mom, she was just off camera...
S. O'BRIEN: Shooting it.
M. O'BRIEN: Is she there? Is mom there?
S. O'BRIEN: Is your mom there?
MALOY: She is here! She still has her camera.
They say hi, mom.
M. O'BRIEN: She's not around? Is she over there? Just have her wave.
MALOY: She's behind the camera.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Usually, her mom is shooting it, too.
M. O'BRIEN: She says she's shooting it with her own DVD camera.
All right. Good to see you, Lizzie.
Coming up, some "AM Pop" as the new year begins. TV networks are rolling out some new shows. We'll tell you which ones are worth your time.
That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, it's that time of year again. It's the time of year, out with the not so go, in with the maybe good? "Newsweek" television critic Marc Peyser joins us to tell us what looks good as they replace the television season.
How are you? Good morning.
MARC PEYSER, "NEWSWEEK": Good. How are you?
S. O'BRIEN: I'm doing all right.
It's fair to say that what's going out was pretty bad.
PEYSER: Yes. I didn't think was this a very good year at all.
S. O'BRIEN: How about what's coming in? Feel good?
PEYSER: Good, actually. S. O'BRIEN: Oh.
PEYSER: Surprisingly good. I actually think pound for pound better than the fall.
S. O'BRIEN: Wonderful. Well, that's some good news. And let's just run right through them and get to it.
The first one is called "Love Monkey." It's based on a novel by Kyle Smith. He's been a guest on our show a couple of times. And it stars Tom Cavanaugh, who we loved in "Ed."
PEYSER: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think of this one? You like it?
PEYSER: Good. Very good. And actually, like "Ed," a very sort of offbeat, sweet sensibility, no more cop shows.
S. O'BRIEN: What's the premise?
PEYSER: He's a record producer in New York who doesn't want to go big time. He wants to be an Indy record producer. He hangs out with a bunch of regular guys, he's got a girlfriend who he is having commitment problems with.
It's a nice sort of sweet, usual network show, especially for CBS. Very young and hip.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, we're starting off well. I like it.
Something called "Crumbs" on ABC, it's like a family that puts the fun in dysfunctional, I guess. Jane Curtin is in it. And also Fred...
PEYSER: Fred Savage, "The Wonder Years."
S. O'BRIEN: ... Savage from "The Wonder Years."
I love Jane Curtin.
PEYSER: Reason enough to watch any show, Jane Curtin.
S. O'BRIEN: So do you like this?
PEYSER: And she's great.
S. O'BRIEN: Is she? Good.
PEYSER: They are, of course, yet another dysfunctional family, as if we didn't have enough of those on TV.
S. O'BRIEN: They're all over TV, aren't they?
PEYSER: But they are way out there. I mean, she starts this show in an insane asylum. S. O'BRIEN: Oh.
PEYSER: And she's crazy. Her husband left her. They run a family restaurant.
They're all insane, except for Fred Savage, who's sort of the normal one. But there's a little bit of a dark underpinning here, too. There's a brother who has died back in the day. So the dysfunction actually comes from someplace for once, which is nice.
S. O'BRIEN: You've got a book -- a show called "The Book of Daniel." That's on NBC. It's about a Episcopalian minister who talks to Jesus.
PEYSER: And is a Vicodin addict.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh.
PEYSER: So he's got trouble. He has got problems.
S. O'BRIEN: And you like this?
PEYSER: Yes. It's different.
S. O'BRIEN: OK.
PEYSER: But it's, frankly, "Desperate Housewives" in a rectory.
S. O'BRIEN: In the clergy.
PEYSER: That's right.
S. O'BRIEN: OK.
PEYSER: So of course people are going to be not thrilled about that. But it's fun.
S. O'BRIEN: Got to talk to you about this one on FOX, "Dancing With The Stars," is now "Skating With The Stars."
PEYSER: Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Do you like this?
PEYSER: Oh, totally great.
S. O'BRIEN: Really?
PEYSER: Yes. I mean, what could be better? They really fall down a lot when they are on ice skates.
S. O'BRIEN: Much more than just regular ballroom dancing.
PEYSER: Much more than ballroom dancing. And they're happy to make fools of themselves.
S. O'BRIEN: Bruce Jenner is one?
PEYSER: Yes. Todd Bridges from "Different strokes."
S. O'BRIEN: That will be interesting.
PEYSER: He is hilarious.
S. O'BRIEN: What's your favorite thing to see this year, you think?
PEYSER: Well, that's pretty -- I'm a big fan of "Love Monkey." I really think it's very sweet and different.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Look at this, this is the first year we've ever had like a really hopeful new season to talk about.
PEYSER: There you go.
S. O'BRIEN: That's nice.
Marc Peyser, as always, senior writer for "Newsweek" magazine.
Ahead this morning, everybody says they're going to eat right, exercise.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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