[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 80 (Monday, May 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4918-H4919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           WHO WILL BE HURT BY CUTS TO MEDICARE AND MEDICAID?

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use my 1 minute to quote 
some sections of a Star Ledger editorial [[Page H4919]] which was in 
the Star Ledger, New Jersey's largest circulation daily, on Thursday, 
May 11. It says:

       The Republicans have offered a budget resolution that does 
     it all, reduces the deficit, balances the budget, and saves 
     Medicare from bankruptcy--a piece of work crafted of smoke 
     and mirrors. The only thing they do not tell you is how to 
     cut $256 billion from Medicare and $175 from Medicaid, or who 
     is going to get hurt if and when the cuts are made.
       You cannot make up that kind of money by switching 
     everybody in Medicare and Medicaid to managed care insurance.
       You cannot make it up by cutting fees to doctors and 
     hospitals, unless you want to see the old and the poor turned 
     away.
       Medicare is getting all the attention because it is the 
     program for the elderly, a stronger political lobby than 
     people on Medicaid, the program for the poor.
       No one bothers to mention that Medicaid clients are mainly 
     women and their children, or that the biggest bite from that 
     budget provides the only hope most of us will have of keeping 
     our mothers and fathers in nursing homes without our families 
     going bankrupt.
       Many of the same Republicans who ranted last year that a 
     national health care program would result in health care 
     rationing are among the crowd now calling for the kind of 
     budget cuts which could very well mean rationing for the 
     elderly and the poor. Shows what a difference a year and an 
     election can make.

  Mr. Speaker, I include this whole editorial for the Record:
                  [From the Star-Ledger, May 11, 1995]

                        Medicare's Cutting Edge

       Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? Because that's where the 
     money is, he said.
       Why are Medicare and Medicaid scheduled to take the biggest 
     blow in the budget cutting proposed by congressional 
     Republicans? Same reason. Same crime.
       The Republicans have offered a budget resolution that does 
     it all, reduces the deficit, balances the budget and saves 
     Medicare from bankruptcy--a piece of work crafted of smoke 
     and mirrors. All you have to do is trim a bit from this, a 
     bit from that and a whole bunch from Medicare and Medicaid 
     over the next few years and voila!
       The only thing they don't tell you is how to cut $256 
     billion from Medicare and $175 billion from Medicaid or who 
     is going to get hurt if and when the cuts are made.
       You cannot make up that kind of money by switching 
     everybody in Medicare and Medicaid to managed care insurance. 
     The best managed care plans are not holding health care 
     increases down to the point that would have to be matched in 
     order to reap the savings the Republican budget resolution 
     promises.
       You cannot make it up by cutting fees to doctors and 
     hospitals, unless you want to see the old and the poor turned 
     away.
       Medicare is getting all the attention because it is the 
     program for the elderly, a stronger political lobby than 
     people on Medicaid, the program for the poor.
       No one bothers to mention that Medicaid clients are mainly 
     women and their children or that the biggest bite from that 
     budget provides the only hope most of us will have of keeping 
     our mothers and fathers in nursing homes without our families 
     going bankrupt.
       Many of the same Republicans who ranted last year that a 
     national health care program would result in health care 
     rationing are among the crowd now calling for the kind of 
     budget cuts which could very well mean rationing for the 
     elderly and the poor. Shows what a difference a year and an 
     election can make.
     

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