On the recordApril 14, 2011
I thank my colleague. The gentleman from Texas mentioned the fact that as part of the Affordable Care Act last year we made some reforms in Medicare. Yes, we did. We got rid of the overpayments to the private plans, the Medicare Advantage plans. Why did we do that? Because they were costing the taxpayer 114 percent of the fee-for-service, which is why this notion, frankly, that by saying to seniors you can't stay in Medicare now, you've got to go into the private insurance market, has been disproven by our experience most recently. {time} 2110 So we said we're not going to overpay them. And you know what? We used some of those savings to close the prescription drug doughnut hole that seniors fall in. We used some of those savings. Now, it's important to understand that the Republican budget, even though there was a lot of demagoguery about that, you kept those savings, but what you didn't do is continue to close the doughnut hole. Immediately upon passage of the Republican budget, that doughnut hole will stop closing for seniors. I want to pick up on a point Mr. Garamendi made about Medicaid because, as this chart indicates, the great majority of funds for Medicaid go to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Make no mistake, this happens immediately. We're not talking about 10 years from now, 8 years from now. This happens right away.…
