Conrad: Medicare Buy In Not A Deal Breaker

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) has been sharply critical of a proposal, now part of a tentative deal between key Democratic health care negotiators, to allow people aged 55-64 to purchase insurance through Medicare. Now that the deal seems all but locked in, I asked Conrad whether the compromise is a deal breaker for him.

"No," Conrad said. "What I've told the leadership and what I've told your colleagues, other reporters, is, I have to see a CBO analysis, and I have to see what has been proposed in writing. All I've seen is, kind of, thumbnail descriptions, and I've not seen CBO analysis. And that's very important to knowing whether or not I can support it.

Conrad's resistance to growing Medicare rolls is based on his complaint that the program doesn't pay hospitals and doctors in North Dakota enough for their services. That critique has drawn sharp rebuke from his colleague, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who helped negotiate the buy-in proposal.