Thomas Daschle: “if we can get consent, which I will offer in a moment, I intend to offer an amendment which would address one of the…”

“if we can get consent, which I will offer in a moment, I intend to offer an amendment which would address one of the concerns I have with the current bill; that is, the uncertainty with regard to the premium itself. Under the bill, it is anticipated the monthly premium paid for by beneficiaries, the beneficiary obligation, would be $35, but there is no guarantee that beneficiary figure of $35 is going to be what our beneficiaries are going to pay; it is only an average. The Congressional Budget Office that gave the $35 figure cannot state what the range will be that will be charged to beneficiaries. It could be lower. Most likely, it could be higher. I am told last year the Medicare+Choice plans increased by 15.5 percent. That was just last year alone. If Medicare+Choice premiums increased by 15.5 percent, there is no telling what the figure could be. It could be $40 or $50, and I will get into that in a moment. Even the so-called Medicare fallback, available when private plans choose not to serve a community, provides no guarantee. So you do not have any guarantee in the private sector options that will be made available. And if those cannot be made available in a region, the Medicare fallback does not offer any guarantee with regard to what the premium will be either. Initially, we were told by the bill's authors that the fallback plan would have a uniform premium, but in fact it does not have even a uniform premium.”