Lloyd Bentsen: “I had not intended to support the substitute because we wrote a very good bill in the House. Again, I want to commend…”

“I had not intended to support the substitute because we wrote a very good bill in the House. Again, I want to commend the chairman and the chairman of the subcommittee as well for the work they did. We worked very hard all day long to put out a good bill; and I thought the approach was the right approach to take in terms of the model, in terms of the deductible, in terms of the way it worked. It combined the pooled premium structure, it protected the taxpayers, it combined the deductible aspect that the administration wanted, and it even had some liability reform, a collateral offset that I was not particularly comfortable with but I thought was the balance we needed because this was also a temporary measure that we were passing, and in fact we made it as temporary as possible. Because I am not very comfortable with us entering the marketplace right now, but I do think it is necessary to get us into the next year so policies can be rewritten, so we do not have the calamity that I discussed that I think other Members are aware of.”