Rob Andrews: “Mr. Chairman, in 1997, this House enacted the Medicare+Choice Program. The idea was to give some senior citizens the…”

“Mr. Chairman, in 1997, this House enacted the Medicare+Choice Program. The idea was to give some senior citizens the ability to get extended benefits under Medicare, including prescription drugs, by enrolling in managed care plans. There were advertisements in newspapers and on televisions across the country advertising zero premiums and very cheap premiums, and millions of senior citizens across the country flocked into the program. In my area, it is estimated that 35,000 Medicare recipients flocked to the program. The law provided for the first 2 years of the program a substantial Federal subsidy to the Medicare+Choice Program. That subsidy evaporated at the beginning of this calendar year. As a result of that, on January 1, 2000, senior citizen enrollees in this program across the country received significant increases in their premiums. For example, in the part of New Jersey that I represent, people who were paying nothing or $10 a month saw their premiums skyrocket to $85 dollars or $100 or $120 a month. This is a serious problem. The way to address it is for us to bring to the floor of this body legislation that would create for the first time a real and meaningful and comprehensive prescription drug benefit under Medicare.”