Pete Stark: “Mr. Scully, the director of CMS, said last week that it would not extend the solvency of Medicare 1 day and indeed might…”

“Mr. Scully, the director of CMS, said last week that it would not extend the solvency of Medicare 1 day and indeed might shorten the solvency, and that is of course from the Republican director of CMS. Further, both GAO and MedPac, bipartisan groups, have reported to us that the proposed privatized plans that are in the Republican House bill will increase the cost to Medicare for every senior who is foolish enough to sign up for them. So not only does the Republican plan not save any money in Medicare. It is in very grave danger of costing Medicare money for no extra benefit. But we must not try to focus in merely an hour on the multitude problems that exist in the House bill. We are constrained in this motion to deal with portions of the bill that are before us, and so there are two principal elements here: one, to eliminate the cockamammie premium support competition, whatever one wants to call it, Medicare+Choice that starts at 2010 in the House-passed bill. As I have said before, the Republican experts in Health and Human Services tell us it will not save any money and will probably reduce the solvency of the Medicare trust fund. GAO and MedPac tell us that these programs will create additional costs to Medicare over the standardized system. Secondly, there is no fall-back in the House plan. There is no plan in the House plan.”