Jay Rockefeller: “That the Senator and this Senator and all those who work for the Federal Government have, in fact, between 25 and 29…”

“That the Senator and this Senator and all those who work for the Federal Government have, in fact, between 25 and 29 different plans that they can choose from every single year. I have watched my daughter go through this process of spreading out the different programs, sitting on the floor cross-legged, and just looking at all of these 29 different programs spread out before her, 29 different options of health care which she gets to choose from. With Blue Cross-Blue Shield, through that arrangement, she pays them, she can pick her doctor, she can pick her service. She can reject one thing from one year to another. But the choice is hers. The point I would like to loudly insert in this debate is that the Senator in mandating for his employees what they will have. And, indeed, it occurs to me that that is a mandate. That is an entirely different situation from Federal employees, or those in the alliances that were contemplated in the Clinton health care plan.”