John Garamendi: “Mr. Curson, thank you so very much for your thoughtful discussion of the age issue--it's a profoundly important one--and…”

“Mr. Curson, thank you so very much for your thoughtful discussion of the age issue--it's a profoundly important one--and also bringing up the issue of what is the cost of Medicare administration compared to the private health insurance companies. You're quite correct. Medicare is a very efficiently run program, very efficient in collecting the money and paying the bills, far more than you would ever find in the private health insurance sector, perhaps by a factor of 4-- 3, 4, maybe even 5 in some cases. Also, Medicare has had an extraordinary run of keeping the costs down. I'd like now to call upon Mr. Joe Courtney of Rhode Island-- Connecticut. I've made two mistakes today about my colleagues' locale. Joe, it's yours.”