[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 99 (Friday, June 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FIXING A BROKEN MEDICARE SYSTEM

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, it is part of American conventional wisdom 
that if it ain't broke, then don't fix it, but Medicare is broke 
because it is going broke. The Medicare board of trustees said in March 
in their 1995 annual report on Medicare, that the program is severely 
out of financial balance and is expected to be exhausted in 2001.
  It is broke because it is going broke. We have a responsibility to 
fix it. That is what this debate is all about. If you look at the 
numbers that we are talking about, the way that we fix it is in terms 
of numbers. We increase the spending from $4,800 per recipient per year 
to $6,400 per recipient per year. In other words, we go from about $400 
a month per person to about $550 a month per person. But the real 
challenge is working out the details of how that is done.
  I am confident that we can do that. I am confident that based on 
where the private sector has gone to squeeze out money in the medical 
system, that we can do it. But what we need is the help of the 
Democrats, we need the help of the President, we need the help of the 
public. We need our own people, and we need to all work together to 
come up with a solution that will in fact fix this system.

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