Rick Allen: “In conclusion, I thought I would try to simplify this about the prescription drug benefit. The Democrats are saying, all…”

“In conclusion, I thought I would try to simplify this about the prescription drug benefit. The Democrats are saying, all of us are saying, that what we want is a Medicare prescription drug benefit. That is, seniors would get their prescription drug benefit as part of the Medicare package. This is exactly what every Member of this House has through his or her own insurance, because everyone in this House has some plan through the Federal employees insurance, and it is a plan that you sign up for and other Federal employees get, and if they have prescription drug coverage, which I suspect almost everyone here does, they have it as part of the plan. If they have a Blue Cross plan, they have a Blue Cross prescription benefit; if they have an Aetna plan, they have an Aetna prescription benefit. All we are saying on the Democratic side of the aisle is, let us have a Medicare prescription drug benefit. And what the Republicans are saying is no, no, no, no, no, that would be wrong, because, after all, Medicare is a Federal health care plan. We would not want Medicare to provide a prescription drug benefit. That would be somehow wrong, because it is a government plan. That is nonsense. It is not right. It is absolutely not right. The benefit, the prescription drug coverage should come through Medicare.”