Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “it is really pretty simple. Who is going to stand up for America's seniors? Who is going to stand up for rural health…”

“it is really pretty simple. Who is going to stand up for America's seniors? Who is going to stand up for rural health care? Who in this body will stand up for rural patients and rural doctors and rural hospitals over the HMOs? The answer is pretty clear. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in asking to instruct the Medicare prescription drug conferees to remember our Nation's 9.3 million rural Medicare beneficiaries and our rural hospitals and our rural doctors when they continue their critical deliberations. The way this bill currently stands, it is nothing more, Mr. Speaker, than the old bait and switch. And everybody here knows that the Republican leadership has used smoke and mirrors to trick our seniors, to trick my seniors in east Texas into thinking they are getting a Medicare prescription drug plan while in reality forcing them to seek medication from private insurance companies and HMOs that will, number one, set the prices, and, number two, set the benefits. What a racket they have. This is not any sort of Medicare prescription drug plan. What a misnomer. This is a plan to push our seniors, to forcefully shove them and their money into the HMOs. Now, this official HMO enrichment plan that is pushed by the other side does not even pretend to address the needs of rural America.”