Mike Levin: “the Republican bill contains a ticking time bomb, a ticking time bomb of Medicare privatization set to go off in 2010.…”

“the Republican bill contains a ticking time bomb, a ticking time bomb of Medicare privatization set to go off in 2010. Under this bill, starting in 2010, seniors, in essence, would receive a voucher instead of Medicare's guaranteed benefits, instead of open access to doctors and hospitals and predictable costs. Seniors who cannot afford to pay more than they do right now would have to leave Medicare and join HMOs. This so-called benefit for prescription drugs in the Republican bill serves as a decoy, but it is not a very good one. The Republican drug plan is insurance without assurance. No assured premium, no assured deductible, no assured size of the gap between the basic coverage and stop-loss, no assured list of drugs, no assured list of pharmacies, no assured plan from one year to the next. It could change from year to year. From the very beginning, Republicans have wanted to use prescription drugs as leverage to end Medicare. The President said earlier to seniors, we will give you some prescription drug help depending on whether you leave Medicare and join an HMO. And now what this Republican bill is doing is using a very inferior drug insurance plan in 2006, not until then, to make everything except HMOs unaffordable for seniors in 2010. The chairman did say just a few days ago, "Old-fashioned Medicare isn't very good," and I quote his quote.…”