Orrin Hatch: “If you love the Federal Government and the Federal Government's control over all of our lives, boy, this is the program…”

“If you love the Federal Government and the Federal Government's control over all of our lives, boy, this is the program for you, because it certainly would fly in the face of everything we have been trying to do to create a program where you have some options, some choices, and where people can make their own decisions as to what type of health care they want, seniors in particular. So I rise in opposition to the Stabenow amendment. The way I understand the amendment, it would require a permanent fallback to be offered to beneficiaries in addition to the private stand-alone drug plans. Making the fallback plan a permanent option will completely undermine the very structure upon which this bill is built. First and foremost, including a permanent fallback plan creates an uneven playing field. Frankly, we hope the Government fallback plan is never needed. The only reason it is in this bill is to take care of those situations where there are no bidding competitors to provide the health care.”