Frank Pallone: “I will just read this one section from this report, and then I will yield back to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown).…”

“I will just read this one section from this report, and then I will yield back to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown). Again, this is the GAO, the Government Accounting Office, nonpartisan; this is not Democrat or Republicans saying this. This is what the report said: ``To draw PPOs,'' which is a form of managed care ``into Medicare,'' the report said, ``the Bush administration offered to pay them more, waive stringent standards for the quality of care, and remove limits on the costs that beneficiaries might be required to pay. As a result,'' the GAO says, ``these plans were subject to no statutory or regulatory limits on cost-sharing for beneficiaries.'' Quality of care, cost, standards, they do not care. They are just giving money to their friends, the insurance companies.”