Senate Proceeding on Dec 3rd, 2009 :: 6:15:35 to 6:18:35
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6:15:31 to 6:15:51( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: of the medicare cuts and the cuts to medicare advantage. drastically cut. mr. ensign: the senator from idaho and i, we both serve on the finance committee where most of this bill, or a lot of this bill was written. and we both heard democrats on the other side of the aisle complaing about the cuts to medicare advantage. and yet, when i look in the

6:15:35 to 6:18:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Ensign

6:15:52 to 6:16:15( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: bill, the total dollar figure in cuts in medicare advantage is the same as when it came out of the finance committee. isn't that mr. crapo: the senator from nevada is correct i have the exact numbers from c.b.o. provided in the finance committee markup. during the markup c.b.o. estimated the value of the extra benefits offered by medicare advantage plans will drop from

6:16:16 to 6:16:36( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: $135 a month to $42 a month based on the cuts contained in that bill which are essentially the same level of cuts that we now see in the bill before us on the floor. mr. ensign: i would -- let me just make a couple other points in general about this bill. i think we've covered pretty well that medicare advantage is going to take a pretty severe hit.

6:16:37 to 6:16:58( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: medicare overall, hospice care, hospital care, nursing home care, home health, all of them are taking pretty severe cuts. you know, those cuts are going to come from someplace. and most like hreurbgs those cuts are going to come, if the government cuts in the future, those cuts are going to come from benefits to seniors.

6:16:59 to 6:17:19( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: if the government decides to not have those then the deficit's going to go up. you can't have it both ways. you can't have a -- quote -- "deficit-neutral bill" and not have the cuts in medicare. in other words, you're going to either have the cuts in medicare or you're going to have the deficits ballooning into the future. there are several other problems with the bill.

6:17:20 to 6:17:41( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: i just want to make a couple other general points about this bill. first of all, we know it's over 2,000 pages. incredibly complexion language -- complex language in that over 2,000 pages. it places bureaucrats all along the line? charge of health decisions

6:17:42 to 6:18:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: instead of a patient-centered health care system that says the doctor-patient relationship is where most of the health care choices should be made. as a matter of fact, in this bill, according to the national center for policy analysis, almost 1,700 places it authorizes the secretary health and human services to make -- and i quote -- "to

6:18:03 to 6:18:24( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: create, determine and to find things in this bill with rard to health care policy." 1,619 times to be exact. the secretary of health and human services basically

6:18:25 to 6:18:35( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: provides health care policy. bureaucrats in washington, d.c. you mentioned before there was about $500 billion in new taxes, $500 billion in medicare cuts. we know this will lead to