Frank Pallone: “the notion that we will be able to rely on the HMOs in the private sector to provide the drug coverage or any kind of…”

“the notion that we will be able to rely on the HMOs in the private sector to provide the drug coverage or any kind of coverage is totally belied by the reality of what has happened in the last few years. In New Jersey alone in the last 2 years 80,000 seniors taken off, HMOs dropped them. If we do not provide across-the-board prescription drug plans the way the Democrats have devised, we have no guarantee that the seniors will get their drug coverage. I cannot believe after the experience we have had the last few years that has dramatically shown that HMOs will not provide the seniors with the drug coverage, that anyone, including the President, could suggest that somehow that is not the answer. It is, again, the suggestion or the promise that you will do something. The reality will be very different because they will not be able to find that kind of coverage. It will not exist.”