Darlene Hooley: “every senior in the United States that needs a prescription should be able to get it filled, no extra paperwork, no…”

“every senior in the United States that needs a prescription should be able to get it filled, no extra paperwork, no hunting around to find a private insurance company that might be so kind as to decide they are a good enough risk and sell them a policy. Unfortunately, the bill being rammed through Congress today is all smoke and mirrors. In this bill, who knows what the premium will be? We do not know. Who knows what the benefit will be? We do not know. Who knows what the co-pay will be? We do not know. We have seen private insurance companies in the Medicare+Choice plan pull out of areas in Oregon. The insurance companies have said they will not be in this plan. Our seniors are demanding coverage through the tried-and-true insurer that has not failed them, and that is Medicare. I want to make sure we take care of our seniors. I want to do it in a bipartisan way, but it is very hard to be bipartisan when we cannot get an amendment in, and we cannot get an alternative here. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this sham of a bill and support real drug benefits for our seniors.”