Don Nickles: “I would not go that far. But I tell my colleague, I will be happy to join her in requesting Senator Baucus to have a…”

“I would not go that far. But I tell my colleague, I will be happy to join her in requesting Senator Baucus to have a hearing on her proposal as soon as possible. Let's bring in the experts. Let's see what they have to say. I am a little bit chapped at the fact that I had been in the Senate for about 16-some years before I even got on the Finance Committee, and now it is not working. It has the reputation of being one of the most powerful, great committees, and it does not meet. The chairman of the committee does not call meetings on this. We have not had a markup on the prescription drug bill. I would liked to have input. I would like to be able to offer an amendment. And I would like to have testimony so we can find out what the substance of the proposal is, what the impact will be. How much will it cost States? How much will it increase Medicaid costs? I heard somebody say: Well, we think it would increase Medicaid costs by $1 billion or a couple of billion dollars. I think it may be a lot more than that. But I would like to know. Well, we don't know. We have not had estimates. It would be nice to have CMS give us an estimate. Have we had the chance to do that? No. Because we have not had a hearing. I don't believe a hearing was requested, but it should have been. And the chairman of the committee should have agreed. I will just tell my colleague, I am happy to participate in a hearing so we can get the facts out.”