John W. Olver: “the Republican plan is designed to fail because it is a little more than a request for insurance companies and HMOs to…”

“the Republican plan is designed to fail because it is a little more than a request for insurance companies and HMOs to provide insurance for prescription drugs for senior citizens. But, in fact, those HMOs and insurance companies that would provide their plan have already made market decisions to abandon their Medicare HMO program and pull out of virtually every rural and semi-rural area all over America. Why would they provide this plan? They have said that they will not. Republicans claim that their drug plan will provide choices for senior citizens, but their plan guarantees nothing. What would provide choice for seniors is a simple, straight forward, universal, guaranteed prescription medicine benefit that every American eligible for Medicare can choose. That would provide at least one more choice for every single American than they have today. Vote no on this sham plan.”