Paul Ryan: “Under the definition on the other side of privatization, under their definition Medicare is already privatized then…”

“Under the definition on the other side of privatization, under their definition Medicare is already privatized then, because Medicare right now is private providers providing care for our seniors. All the doctors in your country do not work for the Federal Government, the hospitals, the nursing homes. What it is is Medicare paying the bills to private providers to provide care for our seniors. Right now you have HMO's through Medicare providing care to our seniors. So today, under your logic, Medicare is already privatized. The point is this is not privatizing Medicare. I would like to bring the gentleman from New Jersey's (Mr. Pallone) attention to page 260 in the legislation where it says, ``No change in Medicare's defined benefit package'' shall occur. ``Nothing in this part,'' and this is the title they seek to strike, ``or the amendments made by this part, shall be construed as changing the entitlement to defined benefits under parts A and B of title XVIII of the Social Security Act.'' The point is this is not privatizing Medicare. What we are simply doing is adding to the choices that seniors have to make in their lives.”