Jay Rockefeller: “The Senator has responded simply by saying he would have to answer it in 50 different ways because there are 50…”

“The Senator has responded simply by saying he would have to answer it in 50 different ways because there are 50 different States. To that I say yes, and all of them are either in the process of or will be in the process of cutting Medicaid and, therefore, the dual beneficiaries. I ask the Senator from Iowa, is there not a further consideration, and that is when we are dealing with this maximum poor number of people under Medicare, or Medicaid in the case of the dual eligibles, we are also dealing with something which has not been discussed on this floor or indeed was not discussed in the Finance Committee at any length at all, and that is a really frightening problem of assets that, for example, one can apply, one can be under this program up to 130 percent of poverty. Then there is another one that says you can be under this Part B plan up to 160 percent of poverty, but if your assets reach over $4,000, assets which you maintain, you are then kicked from the lower to the upper bracket without any discussion. There is enormous penalty, for example, for owning a car, for owning anything. You would not be living in rural Calhoun in West Virginia without a car. Your home is exempted but nothing else is. At one point I was thinking of offering an amendment--and I may still do so--exempting burial plots from the asset test that would be applied to poor people.”