Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Senators Discuss Medicare Changes
Aired June 16, 2003 - 14:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they've been talking about it for years. Now senators are official debating a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. It's one of the changes that could be made in the Medicare program, as CNN's Jonathan Karl reports, with the election season looming.
Hello, Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles.
Yes, a $400 billion change. Debate just started on the Senate floor, earlier this hour. On the floor now, I believe you can see Senator Ted Kennedy speaking. Senator Kennedy is one person who has really surprised many Democrats by jumping onboard essentially a Republican plan, a bipartisan plan but pursued by the Republican chairman of the Finance Committee in the Senate, Chuck Grassley, and by and large supported by the White House, Kennedy supporting as well. That means it's got a very good chance of passing this year.
And the white house is pulling out all stops on this thing. Take a look at these pictures. You can't get enough of them, really. The secretary of health and human services was out early this morning in rural Maryland riding a Harley-Davidson. There he is. Tommy Thompson, the secretary of human services, riding with a group of seniors, revving up the case for Medicare reform -- for what they said modernizing Medicare for today's more active seniors. That was the point that was being made there.
But the White House has made this -- made it very clear this is their top domestic priority now. This is the one thing they absolutely want to get done this year, putting the president in the position of running for re-election saying he got something for seniors that he promised, he campaigned on and he delivered.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jonathan. What about the differences between the competing plans? Can we -- I'm sure it's complicated but if you could lay it out in a couple of sound bytes, we'd appreciate that.
KARL: Well, there's one key difference between what's being talking about here in the Senate and what's being talked about by Republicans over in the house.
Republicans in the House are pursuing something called means testing. Means testing essentially means that providing less of a benefit for wealthy seniors. What they would do is they would scale back some of the drug benefit for seniors who make more than $60,000 a year. The argument over there is those seniors don't need as much help from the government to pay for their drugs, so they shouldn't be given as much help.
But you've got a lot of resistance from Democrats and some Republicans on this issue, because they think that once do you that, once you provide less of a benefit wealthier seniors, you've changed Medicare into a program that equally helps all into one that is essentially looking more like a Welfare program and that, they fear, could lead to less support for it down the line.
So, Miles, look for that could be one very key difference. It will be fought very bitterly here -- the question about whether or not wealthy seniors should get less of a benefit.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 16, 2003 - 14:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they've been talking about it for years. Now senators are official debating a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. It's one of the changes that could be made in the Medicare program, as CNN's Jonathan Karl reports, with the election season looming.
Hello, Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles.
Yes, a $400 billion change. Debate just started on the Senate floor, earlier this hour. On the floor now, I believe you can see Senator Ted Kennedy speaking. Senator Kennedy is one person who has really surprised many Democrats by jumping onboard essentially a Republican plan, a bipartisan plan but pursued by the Republican chairman of the Finance Committee in the Senate, Chuck Grassley, and by and large supported by the White House, Kennedy supporting as well. That means it's got a very good chance of passing this year.
And the white house is pulling out all stops on this thing. Take a look at these pictures. You can't get enough of them, really. The secretary of health and human services was out early this morning in rural Maryland riding a Harley-Davidson. There he is. Tommy Thompson, the secretary of human services, riding with a group of seniors, revving up the case for Medicare reform -- for what they said modernizing Medicare for today's more active seniors. That was the point that was being made there.
But the White House has made this -- made it very clear this is their top domestic priority now. This is the one thing they absolutely want to get done this year, putting the president in the position of running for re-election saying he got something for seniors that he promised, he campaigned on and he delivered.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jonathan. What about the differences between the competing plans? Can we -- I'm sure it's complicated but if you could lay it out in a couple of sound bytes, we'd appreciate that.
KARL: Well, there's one key difference between what's being talking about here in the Senate and what's being talked about by Republicans over in the house.
Republicans in the House are pursuing something called means testing. Means testing essentially means that providing less of a benefit for wealthy seniors. What they would do is they would scale back some of the drug benefit for seniors who make more than $60,000 a year. The argument over there is those seniors don't need as much help from the government to pay for their drugs, so they shouldn't be given as much help.
But you've got a lot of resistance from Democrats and some Republicans on this issue, because they think that once do you that, once you provide less of a benefit wealthier seniors, you've changed Medicare into a program that equally helps all into one that is essentially looking more like a Welfare program and that, they fear, could lead to less support for it down the line.
So, Miles, look for that could be one very key difference. It will be fought very bitterly here -- the question about whether or not wealthy seniors should get less of a benefit.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
