Political Quotes

“This is an important point, and therefore I think the colloquy is important so we can address it. We have just seen the language for the first time a few minutes ago. The way I understand it, we have about 170 million people out there we are talking about in an employer-sponsored plan. There are about 6 million people who are in what are called self-insured, self-administered plans. Over the last 2 to 3 years, as we have tried to figure out how to treat these 6 million people in a fair way, we have struggled because it is hard. We have produced the designated-decision-maker model--which I am a great believer in; and I believe most people in this body, if they step back and look at it, are great believers in--but what you have in your bill is you have carved out those 6 million people and addressed the issue directly, but in addition to that, you carve out the unions. The argument that was made is that the unions are self-insured, self-administered plans like the other 6 million; that these are union plans, and therefore they should be treated the same as self-insured, self-administered plans. I think the Senator from New Hampshire and I would argue that the unions should not be carved out as well because--while a few may be self-insured and self-administered--the majority of the union plans are not self-insured and self-administered.”