John B. Breaux: “I start off by commending the authors of the amendment for a real serious effort to try to improve the bill. But I rise…”

“I start off by commending the authors of the amendment for a real serious effort to try to improve the bill. But I rise in opposition because there is not any segment of the senior population that you could not isolate and target and say we can make, for this particular group, a better deal than they have in this bill. That is not the purpose of this legislation. The purpose of Medicare is that it is universal. It is not a welfare bill. It is not just for low-income individuals. It is for every American citizen who has reached the age of 65, or older, and qualifies for the program. That is one of the greatest features of the Medicare Program--that everyone is essentially treated equal. So it is easy, if you want to isolate a low-income group and say we are going to give them a better deal. But when you are looking at the entire population of almost 40 million Americans with whom we have to deal, that, indeed, is the real challenge, and that is why the content of this bill is far superior than to narrowly isolate only low-income people and say we can do a better deal for them. Of course, but you are not going to be able to do that in keeping with the general theme of what Medicare is all about and taking care of all Medicare seniors with the best possible deal.”