David Weldon: “That is an important point worth stressing here, that we are not going to be raising co-pays, and we are not going to be…”

“That is an important point worth stressing here, that we are not going to be raising co-pays, and we are not going to be raising deductibles. Actually what we are planning on doing with the Medicare premium basically is the same thing that our Democrat President over in the White House is proposing doing. That is to let it increase gradually with the cost of inflation. This is one of the reasons why I think this reform proposal is really an excellent proposal because for those seniors on a limited budget who are very dependent on making sure that they have good quality medical care because they have heart disease, they have arthritis, they have diabetes and they have to make sure they get in to see the doctor every month or every 2 months or every 3 months, they are trying to get by on the Social Security check. We are not going to be putting increased burdens on those seniors. We are going to be making sure that the resources are available for them so that they can continue to see their physician. We are also going to be giving them that continued freedom of choice so that if they are happy with their practitioner that they will be able to continue to go see the doctor that they have been comfortable with for many years.”