[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          REPUBLICANS MEAN TO PRE- SERVE AND IMPROVE MEDICARE

  (Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administration's 
Trustees Report on Medicare warns that the Medicare trust fund starts 
to go broke in 1996 and is bankrupt by 2002. House Republicans are 
determined to save Medicare by using new approaches, new management, 
and new technologies to improve it, preserve it, and protect it. The 
current Government-controlled Health Care Financing Administration 
system has a lot of waste and fraud. The General Accounting Office 
estimates $44 billion a year in Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
  We want to give senior citizens an incentive to fight waste and fraud 
by paying them 25 percent of any waste or fraud they find in their own 
bills. House Republicans want to strengthen and empower senior 
citizens.
  House Republicans will increase Medicare spending from $4,700 per 
retiree today to $6,300 per retiree in 2002. That is a 34-percent 
increase in Medicare spending per retiree. There is no proposed cut in 
Medicare spending.
  House Republicans will preserve the current Medicare system. We will 
create a series of new choices so senior citizens can control their own 
future.
  Mr. Speaker, together we can create a Medicare system that offers the 
best care at the lowest cost, with senior citizens having the greatest 
control over their own health care.

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