[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 88 (Thursday, May 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



[[Page H5590]]

                                MEDICARE

  (Mr. PORTMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, after hearing the debate on MediGap this 
morning, I am here today to make a plea on Medicare. Let us stop the 
demogoguery--let us roll up our sleeves and deal with the problem. The 
Medicare trustees have just reported to us that if we do nothing to 
save the system, the part A trust fund, the heart of the program starts 
to go broke next year and is bankrupt entirely in 7 short years--not 
unanticipated by those who have been following it closely--but sobering 
nonetheless.
  Let us deal with it--and the sooner the better. The new CBO Director 
told us the obvious in recent testimony: ``Any delay will require 
dramatic cuts and program changes in the future.'' If we start to 
reform the system now, I believe we can accomplish the twin goals of 
saving the program from bankruptcy and improving it through private 
sector innovation, expanded choice and cracking down on fraud. We can 
do it because, as President Clinton told the AARP in 1993, ``Today, 
Medicaid and Medicare are going up at three times the rate of 
inflation. We propose to let it go up at two times the rate of 
inflation. That is not a Medicare or Medicaid cut. So when you hear all 
this business about cuts, let me caution you that that is not what is 
going on. We are going to have increases in Medicare and Medicaid, and 
a reduction in the rate of growth.'' Let us act now in a bipartisan 
manner before the problem gets out of hand.
  The Medicare trustee report itself stated, ``these programs are too 
important to be politicized and [we] urge that a highly professional, 
nonpartisan approach continue to be followed.''


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