Frank Pallone: “First of all, I suppose we should not give the impression that we as Democrats do not have an alternative to the…”

“First of all, I suppose we should not give the impression that we as Democrats do not have an alternative to the Republican bill, and, in fact, we do. Essentially what we have said is look, we have no problem with traditional Medicare. We think Medicare works. We think that the only thing that needs to be done is to add a prescription drug benefit. So we as a Democratic Caucus have been saying let us just continue on with the existing Medicare program and let us add a prescription drug benefit, and we have proposed adding a new part D to Medicare that provides a voluntary prescription drug benefit to all Medicare beneficiaries and does not require them to join an HMO or a PPO or do any privatization or use a voucher or anything. It is very much modeled on part B, which pays for their doctor bills right now. They would simply pay a premium of $25 a month. They would have a deductible of $100 a year.”