Greg Ganske: “If we look at it on an annual basis the benefit that a Medicare beneficiary would get, for instance, in Nebraska or Iowa…”

“If we look at it on an annual basis the benefit that a Medicare beneficiary would get, for instance, in Nebraska or Iowa or Oregon, it would be in this range, below $4,000 on an annual basis. In some parts of the country it is $6,000. The average is about $4,500. But look at what happens over time as you go out to the year 2002. If nothing changes in Medicare, you can see that the difference between these two increases over time. Let me just show you how this affects my particular State. The dark blue areas are counties that are more than 30 percent below the national average. Light blue is 20 to 30 percent. I practiced medicine for a while in the State of Oregon. Oregon has been very efficient in their health care. Look at the State of Oregon, for example; the whole western part of the State is reimbursed at levels 30 percent or more less than the average. Our plan addresses this inequity because it immediately bumps up the baseline, the minimum amount that any county could receive.”