[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 121 (Tuesday, July 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7555-H7556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLIC TRUSTEES ON MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about a report that has been 
issued by the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees. It is 
labeled, ``The Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs: A 
Summary of the 1995 Annual Reports.''
  I really want to urge, Mr. Speaker, people who are watching this on 
C-SPAN, every single American, regardless of whether you are a senior 
citizen, if you are a citizen of this country, and particularly if you 
are paying taxes or you are a recipient of Social Security or Medicare, 
you should get a copy of this report.
  This report is like a summary of an annual report. It is like the 
summary of an annual report that a shareholder would get in a company 
that he or she owns shares in. Only in this care, this is the summary 
of the annual report for American citizens about their own government, 
and specifically how four trust funds are being handled and what their 
financial health is at this point of time.
  I am going to give a phone number, too, because I really urge you 
very strongly to call your Representative and get a copy of this. I do 
not think that anybody can truly understand or assess or have a very 
clear picture of what is going on with Medicare if you have not read 
this.
  It is very clear. It is well written. It is thoughtfully done. I am 
going to read some things from it. 202-224-3121. That is the 
switchboard number at the Capitol. 202-224-3121. Call it up, ask for 
your Representative and ask for this. It is a status of the Social 
Security and Medicare programs. It is a summary of the 1995 annual 
reports, and they will have a copy of it at their office. They will 
send it to you or they can clearly get a copy.
  This is a report that was created by the Medicare trustees, and they 
include Mr. Rubin, who is the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Reich, who 
is the Secretary of Labor, Ms. Shalala, who is the Secretary of HHS, 
and then a woman named Shirley Chater, who is the Commissioner of 
Social Security, and two private trustees, David Walker and Stanford 
Ross.
  They are charged with the responsibility of reporting to the 
Congress, to the President, and to you more than anybody else, Mr. 
speaker, to the American people, to the public, about the status of 
these trust funds.
  I want to just read a couple of things that are more in a summary 
nature, and again encourage you to get your own copy of this because it 
just lays the whole thing out.
  It talks about the Social Security trust fund and also the disability 
insurance trust fund, but the one I want to concentrate on is the 
Medicare trust fund. What it says is, the Medicare 

[[Page H 7556]]
trust fund, which pays inpatient hospital expenses, will be able to pay 
benefits for only about 7 years and is severely out of financial 
balance in the long range.
  The trustees urge the Congress to take additional actions designed to 
control Medicare costs, and to address the projected financial 
imbalance in both the short range and the long range through specific 
program legislation as part of a broad-based health care reform. The 
trustees believe that prompt, effective and decisive action is 
necessary.
  And then it shows what the assets of the various
   funds are. It talks about the taxes. We spend 1.45 percent of our 
payroll, both that is matched by the employer that is paid for by the 
employee, for a total of 2.9 percent. That is what pays for the 
Medicare trust fund. It shows where the money has been in the past and 
what it is projected to be in the future.

  I want to read one other summary that is at the very end of it 
because I think it is important. I think it is critical. It says, ``A 
Message From the Trustees.'' This is the fifth set of trust fund 
reports on which we have reported.

       During the past five years there has been a trend of 
     deterioration in the long-range financial condition of the 
     Social Security and Medicare programs and an acceleration in 
     the projected dates of exhaustion in the related trust funds.

  With respect to the Medicare Program, the most critical issue, 
however, relates to the Medicare Program. Both the hospital insurance 
trust fund and the supplementary medical insurance trust fund show 
alarming financial results, and it goes on to describe those.
  Now, get a copy of this. Read it through yourself so you can cut 
through some of the rhetoric you hear if you are a regular C-SPAN 
viewer or that you see in the media. There is a serious problem, and it 
is our responsibility as your elected officials to deal with it.
  This problem did not just come to light in the 104th Congress. The 
problem has been around for awhile. We certainly knew about it in the 
103d Congress, and the reason that we were not able to solve something 
is that the President and the Democratic majority at that time wanted 
to bring about a solution that was not very popular with the American 
people.
  I had so much more I wanted to tell you about. The solutions that we 
are proposing, I will pursue this later in a special order.

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