Maurice Hinchey: “Yes. Could be tomorrow or could be Wednesday. In any case, what they want to do is take the limit off the billing…”

“Yes. Could be tomorrow or could be Wednesday. In any case, what they want to do is take the limit off the billing ceilings for health care, and that would expose Medicare beneficiaries, the people who are reliant upon Medicare, to pay out of their pockets an additional 40 percent. Now, again, what they are trying to do here is transparent. It is so easy to see through their motivation. They are trying to destroy confidence in the program. They think that if somehow they could get this bill passed, I do not know how they think they could get it passed, I mean the President would obviously veto if it ever gets to him, the Senate probably has more sense than to ever take it up, but what they want to do is to establish a new law which would require Medicare beneficiaries to pay, on tap of their copayments and on top of other insurance that they might have now, under their proposal, an additional 40 percent out-of-pocket for routine health care procedures. Now, that is guaranteed to undermine the public's confidence in the Medicare system and it is precisely what they want to do. It is clearly their motivation. It is so transparent that anyone, no matter how myopic they might be, can see through it.”