[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 96 (Thursday, July 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
       RATIONING OF MEDICARE TO SENIOR CITIZENS SEEN AS A THREAT

  (Mr. SHAW asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, this morning there appeared in the Washington 
Post a full-page ad, and it carries a simple message: ``What will you 
tell your voters if you cut $110 billion from Medicare?''
  Well, I can tell the members that the Committee on Ways and Means has 
reported out a health care bill that cuts out over the next 9 years 
almost half a trillion dollars from Medicare. When we ask them, `'Where 
are they going to make up these amounts?'' They say, ``Through cost 
savings.''
  Now, listen to this logic. Medicare today pays only about 80 percent 
of the bills of our senior citizens. That means that the other 20 
percent is made up by the rest of the population, through insurance 
premiums, through costs that have been incurred in hospitals and in 
doctors' offices.
  Now, what the administration is telling us and what the Committee on 
Ways and Means is telling us is that we are going to cut an additional 
amount and that is going to be paid for by additional savings. When we 
have a Medicare system right now that is not paying its fair share, 
that has been cut until it is too low, could it be that there is a 
conspiracy to actually cut the amount of services that are going to be 
available to our seniors?
  Mr. Speaker, I think we had better think this one over. We do not 
want to ration Medicare to our seniors who have this as an earned 
right.
  [Mr. DOOLITTLE addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter 
in the Extensions of Remarks.]

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