Kent Conrad: “as I stated earlier on the Senate floor, I believe the bill before us is a step in the right direction. It provides…”

“as I stated earlier on the Senate floor, I believe the bill before us is a step in the right direction. It provides much-needed and long-awaited prescription drug assistance to Medicare beneficiaries across the Nation. I commend Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus for putting this proposal together. But while I support this effort, I also recognize its shortcomings. I think one of the biggest weaknesses of this bill--other than the fact that it is not the kind of full prescription drug plan that many had hoped for because there are not sufficient dollars to support such a plan--is the fact this underlying legislation has too much instability. It creates confusion. We could have a senior being in four different plans in 4 different years. And if there is anything I think we know, it is that seniors want certainty. They want to know what they are getting. But under this plan, seniors could be bounced back and forth between different plans, depending upon how many private drug-only plans enter an area. That is the first problem. If a senior is in a fallback plan and two private plans enter the area, they will be forced to leave a plan they may like, and they have no choice in the matter. The second problem is, every time they switch between drug-only and fallback plans, their benefits could change. This chart demonstrates that uncertainty. Premiums are uncertain. Deductibles are uncertain.”