Senate Proceeding 11-03-09 on Nov 3rd, 2009 :: 4:11:40 to 4:13:49
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4:11:22 to 4:11:42( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: option will be their choice in order to get the health care they need. simple health care that's laid out for them that makes a lot of sense. so the -- the one of the big things weave to get through to people is exactly what the story is here and what really will help them get their health insurance so that we can have small businesses build up so they can get more employees an

4:11:40 to 4:13:49( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Benjamin L. Cardin

4:11:43 to 4:12:03( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: create more jobs an create the jobs we need for the country. mr. cardin: the public option brings down costs. that's why i think we support a public option. it gives -- it's a reliable product t to be tre. if you're living in western maryland and there's not a lot of insurance companies there, you know that there's a position, that plan will be there for you. you know it's going to be affordable.

4:12:04 to 4:12:28( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: you know it's not going to leave town like insurance companies did that used to insure medicare. it will also act as strong competition for the private insurance companies so that they know they nee to be competitive. they, again, they -- the -- it's not competive. there's not enough companies there. so the private insance option will offer people like robert,

4:12:29 to 4:12:50( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: who i mentioned, another option, another choice, an affordable plan. he can't afford $20,000 a yea he's look fog -- looking for a premium that's more affordable than $20,000 a year one more thing about a public option i think we need to clarify. some say, gee, this is a government takeover. is medicare a government takeover? the answer is no.

4:12:51 to 4:13:11( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: there hasn't been one senator to come to the floor to say we should repeal medicare. medicare has been a very successful program. and, by the way, health insurance reform will strengthen medicare. why? because the way to bring down medicare costs is to bring down health care costs. what we've been doing year after

4:13:12 to 4:13:32( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: year after year is picking on medicare, saying we're going to control health care costs by reducing medicare. can't do it. you have to bring down health care costs, bring down medicare costs and what we do is strengthen the medicare benefits by giving additional benefits, starting to fill the doughnut hole under the prescription drug plan, so we're strengthening the

4:13:33 to 4:13:49( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: medicare program. the doctors, the hospitals are all private as they would be under a public option. this is a way of providing more competition and, quite frankly, keeping the private insurance companies a little bit more competitive and honest as they do their marketing to make sure that we get value for the