Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, Medicare select is an issue I have followed for several years. I am the only former insurance regulator in the 104th Congress. At the time the Medicare Select Program came into being, I was regulating the insurance market in North Dakota, the State I now represent in this body. I favored very strongly the Medicare select component. I thought perhaps the 15-State limitation at that time was unduly restrictive, in light of fairly prevalent practices throughout the Medicare supplement market at that time to allow the type of discounting and favorable premium impact it had for the senior citizen consumers under the operation explicitly allowed for the 15 States under the program. I believe with the Medicare select, those who would believe we are engaged in an experiment here have it exactly wrong. The Medicare select restrictions actually constricted discounting activity that was allowing seniors lower insurance prices throughout the 50 States. I fought as an insurance regulator to make sure North Dakota got to be one of the 15 States allowed, and was pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services allowed North Dakota to be one of the States. The experience has been significant. It has allowed a 17-percent premium deduction for senior citizens.”