Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as we continue to debate health care, there are some things that are kind of being debated that I call monkey dust. When two gorillas fight, they try to confuse each other by throwing dust up in the air. It has nothing to do with the substance of the fight but rather is only meant to distract the other side. That is part of what this kerfuffle, if you will--people raise per-beneficiary payments as if that is something pernicious, something that should be avoided, something which is bad. First, we are setting this kind of in the perspective of Medicaid. Let me speak about per-beneficiary payments. For those who are in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan, the Federal Government makes a per-beneficiary payment to the insurance company to cover that Federal employee. For those States which have a Medicaid managed care company contract, the State makes a per-beneficiary payment to the Medicaid managed care company. That is a per-beneficiary payment. The reason I like this is because, inherently, the dollar follows the patient. Now we are speaking about this in the context of a Medicaid reform program. Why should Medicaid be reformed? That is the question. Let's speak about our current Medicaid system. It is bankrupting States and the Federal Government. In 2009, for the first time, the amount of money spent by States on Medicaid exceeded what they spent on education.…”