[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 120 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7465-H7466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           REFORMING MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, ``What you don't understand is why I ain't 
dumb enough to fall on my sword.'' Let me repeat that. ``What you don't 
understand is why I ain't dumb enough to fall on my sword.''
  Those are not my words. Rather, they are the words as quoted in the 
Houston Chronicle of the majority leader of this House, my Republican 
colleague from Texas, the Honorable Dick Armey, when asked to explain 
why the Republican majority is unwilling to detail to American seniors, 
to American families, the specifics of their plan to do what they call 
reforming Medicare.
  We have, since that time, been told by Speaker Gingrich that perhaps 
2 months from now, and it is almost 2 months to the day, on September 
22, we will finally hear the details of how it is that our Republican 
colleagues propose to deal with the Medicare system.
  One can hardly stop in amazement as to why it is, if this is such a 
good plan to reform and save Medicare for future beneficiaries, rather 
than run to decimate it for people who are on Medicare, why it is that 
they are hiding their light under a bushel, why it is that they will 
not detail to the American people so that they can evaluate how great a 
plan this is, rather than having 

[[Page H7466]]
it sprung on them as a September surprise for seniors, why it is they 
are hiding their plan.
  I think the reason is clear to any close observer of what is 
happening to Medicare, why it is that our Republican colleagues are, in 
fact, mediscared when it comes to revealing the details of their plan 
to alter and decimate the Medicare system.
  The whole plan is based on two premises. No. 1 is the premise that it 
is not so much about Medicare that they are concerned, but they need a 
certain amount of money and it just so happens that what I have always 
viewed as the Medicare trust fund, but what they seem to see as the 
Medicare slush fund, has moneys coming into it that are available to 
meet their need to provide some tax shift and relief for the most 
privileged few in our country. It is really
 not a battle about Medicare. It is just that there are Medicare funds 
there that they want to use for something else.

  The second and the most significant premise about these so-called 
reform plans that the majority leader does not want to fall on his 
swords on and is not dumb enough to fall on his sword on, is that all 
of the various approaches that have been conceived in the name of 
reform are based on one simple premise, and that is that health care is 
just too cheap for our senior citizens; they are not contributing 
enough to their Medicare.
  In fact, even though they contribute more on the average as a 
proportion of their income than any other age group in this country, 
although they have no Medicare coverage for prescriptions, which is an 
extreme cost for many of our Nation's seniors or for the families that 
are backing up their parents, although there is no real effective 
coverage anywhere for long-term health care, for the long-term health 
care needs of many of our Nation's seniors, these so-called reform 
plans are based on the assumption that our seniors are just getting by 
with having to pay too little and that they ought to have to pay more 
with reference to their health care.
  One of the concepts that is being advanced, and all of these concepts 
we get not from anything that has been said at this microphone or 
anywhere on the floor of this House, because to this very day, since 
this idea of junking Medicare as we have known it has come out from our 
Republican colleagues, from day one, they have been as silent as this 
microphone to my left is at the moment when it comes to detailing their 
plans. They have been mediscared to come to this floor and level with 
the American people and tell the American people what it is that they 
are doing. They have yet to utter a word of specifics.
  There are a number of internal memos that, thanks to the freedom of 
the press in this country, reporters have investigated and they have 
talked to staff members and they have gotten contact here and there, 
and some of the Nation's leading news periodicals, relying on those 
Republican staff members and off-the-record comments, have begun to get 
the details of what is about to be sprung on it two months from now in 
September.
  One of the ideas that is about to be sprung on us is the idea 
consistent with the approach that American seniors are just not paying 
enough out of their pocket for their health care, that we ought to 
discourage them from buying insurance, the MediGap insurance that many 
seniors purchase in order to cover what Medicare does not cover now.
  The theory, according to these investigative reports is that, relying 
on Medigap insurance, seniors just do not have to pay enough for their 
coverage.
  The second idea is to raise monthly fees, and the third is to 
actually raise the age at which people can qualify.
  All of these suggest that the American people need to get more 
informed about the September surprise for seniors that our Republican 
colleagues plan to pose with reference to Medicare.


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