To provide for a deficit-neutral reserve fund to make improvements to ensure access to the Medicare program for low-income senior citizens and other low-income Medicare beneficiaries.

SA 4370. Mr. BINGAMAN (for himself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Obama, Mr. Pryor, Ms. Collins, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Levin, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Casey, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Nelson of Nebraska, Ms. Stabenow, and Mrs. Clinton) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 70, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2009 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2008 and 2010 through 2013; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 62, between lines 3 and 4, insert the following:

(3) Medicare low-income programs.--The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget may revise the aggregates, allocations, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for a bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that makes improvements to the Medicare Savings Program and the Medicare part D low-income subsidy program, which may include the provisions that--

(A) provide for an increase in the asset allowance under the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy program so that individuals with very limited incomes, but modest retirement savings, can obtain the assistance that the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 was intended to deliver with respect to the payment of premiums and cost-sharing under the Medicare part D prescription drug benefit;

(B) provide for an update in the income and asset allowances under the Medicare Savings Program and provide for an annual inflationary adjustment for those allowances; and

(C) improve outreach and enrollment under the Medicare Savings Program and the Medicare part D low-income subsidy program to ensure that low-income senior citizens and other low-income Medicare beneficiaries receive the low-income assistance for which they are eligible in accordance with the improvements provided for in such legislation, by the amounts provided in such legislation for those purposes, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2008 through 2013 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2008 through 2018.