Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this bill is fundamentally flawed. It does not use the Medicare model for providing benefits; and with Medicare, when we provide benefits for physicians or hospitals, our seniors are guaranteed those benefits. In this bill for prescription drugs, they are guaranteed nothing. It reminds me of what we told our seniors with HMOs. Join HMOs and you will get prescription drug coverage. What happened as soon as they joined? The deductible, the co-pays went up, and the amount of coverage went down. There is no protection in this bill on premiums like under Medicare. In Medicare, our seniors know that their Part B premium is tied to 25 percent of the cost. They know how much it will be. There is no protection in this bill as to what the premium will be set at or how much it will increase. No protections to our seniors. In Medicare, we know that there will be a reimbursement system in our communities. You can always rely on Medicare. The underlying bill relies on private insurance. Mr. Speaker, there is no protection in this bill for those private insurance companies leaving our community. Look what happened with the HMOs. They enrolled seniors. They brought them in, and then they left town. Ask the people in Maryland. In 1996, we had eight HMOs writing seniors business, private insurance. Today, we have one with a capped enrollment.”