Sherrod Brown: “I have an idea. What if we, say, break Medicare apart and ask seniors to shop in the private insurance market if they…”

“I have an idea. What if we, say, break Medicare apart and ask seniors to shop in the private insurance market if they want to piece it back together. Seniors could buy one private plan to cover doctors visits, another to cover hospital stays, a third to cover home health services, and maybe a fourth to cover prescription drugs. Perhaps they could purchase an Aetna plan for outpatient care, a Kaiser plan for the physical therapy coverage, and maybe Golden Rule will offer insurance for medical equipment. Does this sound absurd? Why is it less absurd to isolate prescription drugs and require Medicare beneficiaries to carry a separate private stand-alone you-are-on-your-own policy for that benefit? That is what the Republican prescription drug plan is all about. It privatizes the prescription drug plan. It says to senior citizens, 'Here is a voucher. Here is a little bit of money,' although they give the money to the insurance company, actually not directly to the senior citizen. 'Here is a plan, here is some money. Go out and find your own plan.' If the GOP prescription drug plan is a back door attempt to privatize Medicare, something that Republicans have wanted to do since 90 percent of them voted against the creation of Medicare 35 years ago, and occasionally say, in more recent years, that they want to privatize Medicare, my colleagues should come out and tell us that they want to privatize Medicare.”