Frank Pallone: “The catastrophic would also be very low. I will not get into the details, but you have to have a very low catastrophic…”

“The catastrophic would also be very low. I will not get into the details, but you have to have a very low catastrophic figure, too. In other words, above a certain point, whether it be $2,000 or $3,000, whatever it is, if your out-of-pocket expenses exceed that, then all your costs would be paid for by the Federal Government. That should be fairly low as well, if it is going to be meaningful, I would say. Again, this is not rocket science here. We are just basically talking about what we already have for your hospital bills, and we are just saying we want to build on a very successful Medicare program to provide coverage for all seniors. There is no magic here. I believe that with the cost factor and the large pool, that the cost probably would not be that much, considering what we are spending on everything else, as our colleague from Massachusetts pointed out. So if I could just conclude and thank my colleagues for participating tonight, the main concern I have right now, to be perfectly honest, is that we do not have any action by the Republicans on this issue. They talked about it 2 or 3 weeks ago and promised they were going to bring it up before Memorial Day. They have not. I disagree with the gentleman in the sense that I would just as soon they bring some bill to the floor and have a debate, because I am fearful we are not going to get to it at all. Clearly when that debate occurs, what the Republican leadership talked about is not acceptable.”