[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 124 (Friday, July 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H7975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we are facing 
this weekend is the 30th birthday of Medicare. Many of us have been 
trying to talk about this issue in quiet voices because we think 30 
years old is not old enough for Medicare. We would like to see it 
survive and survive in a very healthy mode.
  One of the things that we found out yesterday was the gentleman who 
put together the ``Harry and Louise'' commercials and did everything 
they could to derail, and did derail, health care reform, was given a 
lecture that somebody taped, so we were able to hear it yesterday.
  The point of the lecture was what to do to scare people about 
Medicare so they would stampeded, and you could raid that little piggy 
bank to use it for the tax cuts that the other side wants to use it 
for. As we watched, almost everything we heard on that tape is coming 
true today.
  What I am trying to say is that on the 30th
   anniversary of Medicare's birthday, that people should be very 
mindful of what is going on. There are big, big, big economic interests 
circling around Medicare that cannot wait to get their little mitts on 
it.

  First of all, there are a lot of people talking about if you really 
cut it and you try to find a way to downsize this whole thing, the 
first trick will be to lure the healthy out, to transfer them out into 
the private sector. That is why I think so many private insurance 
companies have been willing to fund this group that is going to go out 
and say ``Oh, we have got to change Medicare to save Medicare.''
  You know what will happen and I know what will happen. They will lure 
those healthy people out but the minute that they get sick, I will bet 
you no one will get an insurance policy that guarantees renewal no 
mater what their health condition. You can lure them out, make money on 
them, and the minute they get sick, boom, transfer them back over to 
the Federal Government or cut them off and leave them hanging out 
there, That is where I think we have to look to see where it is that we 
are going.
  When this lecture was given that we got to hear yesterday, they were 
saying that the only way you could get people to change the status quo 
was to scare them, scare them to death, and so we see people waving 
these reports around that the Medicare trust fund is in trouble. No one 
will ever stipulate that it has not got some problems. Yes, it has got 
some problems, and this side of the aisle has been dealing with those 
problems year after year after year.
  The way we deal with them is you look at the number of beneficiaries, 
you look at the cost of the care, you try to see if there is anything 
you can do to streamline, get the waste out or whatever, and then any 
savings you get, you plow it back into that trust fund.
  The question I have to those waving this report saying how much 
trouble Medicare is in, how terrible it is going to be if we do not do 
something, the question I have for them is then why are they proposing 
that they should take $270 billion out, not plowing it back in, but 
taking it out? If it is already in trouble, where is the scenario where 
just removing the funds is going to make it healthier? I think it only 
puts it on a faster downhill trend, but I think they are hoping people 
only hear parts of the message and do not think it all the way through 
to the end.
  As we get ready to celebrate this birthday, and I guess one of the 
reasons I feel so strongly about this birthday is it is the same 
birthday as mine, but as we get ready to celebrate this birthday for 
the 30th anniversary of Medicare, I am saying to people, please listen 
carefully. Please ask questions about why some companies will put so 
much money up, to do everything they can to agree to take all this 
money out of Medicare.
  Maybe it is because they think they are going to be enriched if they 
can get that to happen, that they are going to make some money out of 
it. I really rather doubt that they are putting all this money up for 
this big PR effort because they are doing it just in the name of good 
government or just as a charitable contribution or something they would 
like to do for older folks. I think we really have to pierce the veil 
of those kind of entities and find out who is standing behind them and 
find out if they stand to be enriched if these things transpire.
  I think playing with people's trust funds is just too scary. Ther are 
too many problems and too many people who really distrust the Federal 
Government to add this to their list of things that make them angry. 
Most people like Medicare. Let us hope it is still in as good a shape 
as it is now on its next birthday.

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