Frank Pallone: “When I have posed that to the Republicans and I have said, the private market does not want to come in, even the HMOs do…”

“When I have posed that to the Republicans and I have said, the private market does not want to come in, even the HMOs do not come in, their answer is, we'll just give them more money. We know they have these plus-ups. I guess about $20 billion of the $400 billion is extra money going to the HMOs and the PPOs, the private sector, to offer this kind of drug benefit. Then I say to them, what if the $20 billion doesn't work? They say, we'll just give them more money. That is their response, but it is the absolute opposite of what true competition is. If you are going to have to keep giving them more and more money in order to get them to enter into this market, how is that free enterprise and market economy?”