Bob Kerrey: “I hope that Members actually will vote to waive in this case. We are trying to move in the direction of managed care…”

“I hope that Members actually will vote to waive in this case. We are trying to move in the direction of managed care, particularly those of us who are trying to work both sides of the aisle and get some agreement on providing incentives in Medicare to control costs, to increase choice, and allow people to purchase into managed care. The CBO does not calculate any savings that occur as a consequence of people liking managed care as a result of knowing that they are going to get all the information to purchase it and reduce taxpayer exposure as a consequence. All they do is calculate some marginal increase in costs that might occur as a result of more expensive treatments being done. They offer no savings as a result of people saying we now like managed care better because of what occurs. This is eventually going to become law. Later on, we are going to pass an amendment with a big vote that gives Federal employees the same right.”