Thomas Daschle: “This is not in any way, shape or form an amendment designed to provide patients with more choice. This will leave…”

“This is not in any way, shape or form an amendment designed to provide patients with more choice. This will leave seniors totally uncertain about what their Medicare will cover and let doctors determine the degree of Medicare coverage each beneficiary will have. That is what this is about: Jeopardizing patients' rights, putting them in a very uncertain set of circumstances, taking away the certainty and the confidence they have when they are in a doctor's office or in a hospital or in an operating room that Medicare will pay their bills. Let us not jeopardize those patients' rights or their confidence when they are sick that the Medicare Program is working for them.”