OBA Spokeswoman for Seniors Louise Jackson and Health Minister Zane DeSilva exchanged criticisms yesterday regarding public awareness of FutureCare.While Mrs Jackson said that Mr DeSilva called her a liar on the Shirley Dill Sunday Morning Show, Mr DeSilva said he was attempting to correct misinformation spread by the opposition.The war of words began last week, when Mrs Jackson issued a statement criticising FutureCare.In a statement issued yesterday, Mrs Jackson said “The statement was based on conversations with seniors who revealed confusion and misunderstanding about their financial obligations under FutureCare.“I challenge him to call me a liar to seniors who read a FutureCare brochure that said overseas care would be provided for emergency services, and I challenge him to call me a liar to seniors who did not understand that their HIP benefits would not be fully extended to FutureCare.”Mrs Jackson reiterated her belief that Government has not done enough to educate the public on the matter, saying: “It’s my view that Government did not do a good job informing seniors about FutureCare’s different levels of coverage when the programme was first rolled out, and that seniors remain misinformed and under-informed because of it.“Government has a special responsibility in this regard. Town hall meetings and films and a ministerial statement in the House of Assembly by the late Nelson Bascome do not constitute effective, comprehensive communication with seniors of a new, life-affecting healthcare plan.“The purpose of my statement was to point out the need to communicate more effectively with seniors on a matter of extreme importance to them, from health and financial points of view. Instead, the Minister is trying to discredit me.”Responding to to the comments, Mr DeSilva said yesterday evening: “After I corrected inaccurate claims made in the media by MP Louise Jackson in the House of Assembly on Friday, MP Jackson repeated those inaccurate claims on a local talk show on Sunday morning.“I was alerted to this, and contacted the talk show host so that I could again correct the record and share the facts with the people of Bermuda. It is disturbing that even after the record was corrected in the House of Assembly, MP Jackson continues to spread misinformation. Her actions show that the Opposition is so desperate that they will mislead our seniors.”“Every time MP Jackson misrepresents the record on Government’s health policy or FutureCare, I will correct it. I will not apologise for stating facts. As evidenced by MP Jackson’s statement claiming that I called her a liar, the OBA is short on ideas, but full of attacks without offering an alternative.”In last week’s statement, Mrs Jackson said that seniors had been misinformed about the benefits under the health insurance programme for seniors, noting missing information in early FutureCare brochures.Mr DeSilva responded in the House of Assembly on Friday, saying that while he applauded Mrs Jackson’s tenacity, her “research and fact gathering have been poor.”He said that the Health Insurance Amendment Act was debated at length in the House of Assembly in 2009, and that Government had released several brochures and held more than 25 town hall meetings regarding FutureCare.“All of these communications to the public provided full overviews of the benefits of FutureCare,” he said. “In fact, many of the town hall meetings spent well over an hour simply reviewing FutureCare benefits.“Every effort was made to ensure that meetings were accessible to seniors and widely attended. All the town hall meetings were held during the day, with most held during lunchtime hours.“Some of the town hall meetings were used to register persons for FutureCare on the spot.”He also described Mrs Jackson’s statement that seniors pay more for FutureCare while getting less coverage than on HIP as “simply erroneous.”“The only person who seems to be unclear about these matters is the Honourable Member for seniors,” he said.