Frank Pallone: “The problem that I see with all this, not only with Medicare and Medicaid, with the Republican proposals, is that if you…”

“The problem that I see with all this, not only with Medicare and Medicaid, with the Republican proposals, is that if you cut people off the rolls or if you cut back the services that are covered by Medicare and Medicaid you cause, which is what they are doing basically, a lot more out-of-pocket expenses. What I see is the burden shifting increasingly to the children and the grandchildren of these senior citizens. Because many of them are not going to be able to afford the additional costs out of pocket. Some people have said to me, ``Oh, that's okay, let the children and the grandchildren pay for it.'' First of all, you have the phenomenon that some will not. But beyond that, how far can they go? A lot of younger people have their own children to raise and they are not expecting that they are going to have to shell out large amounts of money to pay for nursing home care for their parents or their grandparents or these other doctor and physician services.”