Frank Pallone: “It is an ideological problem, I am convinced of that. They have a problem with Medicare because it is a government-run…”

“It is an ideological problem, I am convinced of that. They have a problem with Medicare because it is a government-run program, and they do not believe in government-run programs. I always say that when you come down here you cannot be that ideological. You have to be practical about what works, and Medicare works. So we should expand it to include prescription drugs. I hate to say this, and I do not want to cast aspersions, but at least in Maine there is an option to go someplace. If you are in New Jersey, it is too far. And I think that is the unfortunate part of this. We are looking at these options, but they are not options really for most people. The gentleman's bill is great, and I certainly support it and would love to see it enacted, but there are many other ways we could reduce costs that the Republicans have essentially rejected. Obviously, if you have a Medicare benefit, and all 39 or 40 million American seniors are in that program, that gives the Department of Health and Human Services tremendous bargaining power, like we do with the VA or like we do with the military hospitals; and they should be able to negotiate prices that would bring costs down. There are other things. I know that my colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), has a bill with regard to generics to try to encourage generics, which is another way of bringing costs down. But we do not see that happening. Republicans do not like that too much.”