Bob Corker

Yeah. I think you can understand my frustration with the hypocrisy in this institution.

I assure you my heart goes out to students who have huge amounts of loans that may never be repaid.

There is a consumer issue they are also, is that correct?

the tremendous hypocrisy, the attitude is at us, it is at us, and that is that, you know, obviously, Ms. Loonin, great testimony and I appreciate your work in this regard

I just find it fascinating that one of the first things that you would do as a consumer protection agency is get us to consider letting students... to be able to file bankruptcy which is one of the most damaging things that a consumer can…

I could not agree more.

I am unconvinced that that change is in any way benefiting students or taxpayers.

It sounds like there may be a number of public institutions around the country that we may need to look at.

We must make sure that Medicare and Medicaid are working together to serve dual eligibles efficiently and cost effectively.

And will that differ, by the way, per each state?

And you've talked a lot about the complexity, and you gave two great examples on the front end, and aligning incentives and all of that.

Medicare reform is certainly--not necessarily the dual-eligible component but probably that, too--is going to be a topic that I think we may actually take up over the next six months to a year-and-a-half as part of fiscal reforms.

I think we need to look to the private sector, and we need to be very concerned about what's going to happen from the standpoint of debt, deficit, and those types of pressures on our medical system.

I want to applaud you for trying to figure out a better way of dealing with dual eligibles, I really do.

Some of the states have found some unmet needs for home and community-based services when they looked at newly enrolled beneficiaries.

It's phenomenal to see what happens there, and it really is a model of how health care can and should work in our country.

I think with input from stakeholders who care deeply about the lives of these dual eligibles, and with oversight from Congress, I think we can have a very good outcome.

So based on that statement, do you think there will be much impact on the savings that we're seeing from Medicare Part D now?

Well, thank you very much.

I am very pleasantly surprised that the Administration is taking this on in the way that it is.

I think, again, when you look at the interest that we've had in this hearing, the people that are here, you find this anytime there are changes in the Federal Government, people that have been serving a population in a certain way become…

And do you plan to allow states to substitute their Medicaid formulary for Part D?

So you think that's appropriate and feel comfortable with that?

There's been a lot of discussion about the size of this program.

We are going to spend about $45 to $47 trillion of taxpayer money over the next 10 years.