UPDATE: Here is audio from Nelson's opening statement today.

Now, the hard work. ... After months of closed-door negotiations, Sen. Max Baucus' health care bill, which has drawn mixed reviews since its unveiling last week, will be heard this morning in the Senate Finance Committee. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said he is prepared to offer 14 amendments, including one to protect proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage.

Nelson wants to effectively phase out the extra benefits -- which include vision and hearing care -- but help those who currently enjoy them. “It’s the right thing to do for taxpayers in the long term,” he
said in a news release, which boasted that the amendment got play on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “And it’s the fair thing to do short term for the seniors.”

According to his office, more than 900,000 Florida seniors, or one-third of the state’s Medicare beneficiaries, have these plans. In Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties alone, an average of 41 percent of all Medicare enrollees have them.

More than 560 amendments have been offered, so the committee has a tough road ahead.

Nelson said he filed an amendment to require that drugmakers provide rebates to a major part of the Medicare program, like they do for Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office says this could raise more than enough money to cover the current gap in Medicare’s prescription drug coverage, known as the doughnut hole.

The CBO estimate is more than $80 billion in savings from rebates over 10 years, according to Nelson's office. That deal could meet resistance, however, because President Barack Obama and drugmakers have already agreed to $80 billion in savings.

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