Ron Wyden: “I would like to respond to the Senator from Kentucky by again making it clear that it is my interest to work very…”

“I would like to respond to the Senator from Kentucky by again making it clear that it is my interest to work very closely with colleagues on the other side of the aisle on these health care issues, and that is why we took the proposal Senator Hatch had for repeal and replace on Medicare as the base bill. It is why I spent a lot of time working with colleagues on the other side of the aisle on Medicare Part D and trying to make sure it could be implemented well. What was striking was that a lot of the stories about Medicare Part D in the first couple of months resembled the stories we are now seeing about the Affordable Care Act. The Congressional Budget Office has made the comment that Part D has come in more than 25 percent less in terms of projected costs than what CBO saw years ago. We are going to work in a constructive way. I hope we will not see a push, for example, to repeal the Affordable Care Act because if you do that, you will go back to the days when health care in America was for the healthy and the wealthy because you would again allow discrimination against those with a preexisting condition. The Affordable Care Act has air-tight protection for those who have a preexisting condition, and if you repeal the Affordable Care Act, you would simply go back to those days. Working with colleagues in a bipartisan way on strengthening the health care system and our economy--absolutely.…”