Record Medicare premium hikes and Bush's opposition to allowing the purchase of Canadian drugs make Kerry the choice.

When George W. Bush was campaigning to become president four years ago, he pledged he'd fix Medicare and Social Security, help the uninsured get medical coverage and make prescription drugs more affordable.

Four years later, Americans don't have much to show for Bush's efforts. Bush has changed Medicare, but not all for the better. Meanwhile, the president still favors allowing workers to invest their Social Security in risky private accounts. And prescription drugs, as most Americans know, are anything but cheap - unless you buy them outside the United States, which Bush opposes.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry wants to give Americans a true discount by allowing them to buy much cheaper drugs from Canada and elsewhere. Kerry also is against putting Social Security money in private accounts, and he wants to give Americans access to the same health insurance that members of Congress have. For these reasons, Kerry is the better choice on Election Day.

Social Security will be able to pay out full benefits to retirees through 2042 without changes, according to the AARP. Yet Bush still favors letting workers put a portion of their Social Security contributions at risk by investing them. Giving people control of their money sounds nice in theory, but in reality it defeats Social Security's purpose.

Social Security is money that is supposed to be there when workers retire. Under Bush's plan, an economic downturn would leave thousands, perhaps millions, with a big hole in their security net.

Kerry's plan to keep Social Security in what former Vice President Al Gore dubbed a lockbox ensures the money will be secure until 2042, at least, and hopefully well beyond then.

Bush's chief accomplishments on the health-care front are that he got Congress to OK drug discount cards and added a voluntary prescription drug plan to Medicare. These achievements, however, are slight at best when you consider the AARP reported in July that some drug makers had raised prices on many drugs by as much as three times the inflation rate.

Furthermore, Medicare premiums will rise 17.4 percent next year, the largest hike in the program's 40-year history. Bush has tried to pin this hike on former President Clinton and those in Congress when he was in office. But, according to the nonpartisan www.factcheck.org<, Bush's Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 accounts for more than half of the 17.4 percent hike.

Furthermore, the president's opposition to allowing Americans to reimport prescription drugs from Canada and Europe simply doesn't make sense. These aren't second-rate drugs made by substandard foreign companies, they're medicines made right here, such as the widely prescribed blood thinner Plavix, a three-month supply of which costs $250 in Ireland and $397 here, according to a study by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office.

Kerry wants to give people a real discount by allowing them to buy overseas. And Kerry also wants to allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to buy drugs, something that could lower costs in American pharmacies.

Kerry also wants to offer Americans access to the same health insurance members of Congress have. Bush says that will cost too much, while Kerry says rolling back Bush's tax cuts for the rich will generate the money to pay for it. Considering that the United States is the richest country in the world and yet 45 million are without health insurance according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Kerry's plan deserves support even if more difficult choices must be made to fund it.

For all these reasons, Kerry should be the choice come Election Day.

In the 2000 general election, this publication endorsed George W. Bush for President.