[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 124 (Friday, July 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10868-S10869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NEW STUDY OF IMPACT OF MEDICARE CUTS

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, a new study released today by the 
administration shows the impact of the proposed Republican Medicare 
cuts on seniors and health care providers in each State. The numbers 
are devastating. How could any Senator look at these numbers and 
support these proposals in good conscience?
  This study is especially timely on the eve of the National Governors 
Association Conference in Vermont this weekend. All Governors must be 
asked what these proposed cuts will mean for seniors in their State and 
for the health care system as a whole. Here are just a few examples:
  In my State of Massachusetts, over the next 7 years, seniors will be 
asked to pay an additional $4,300 for the medical care they need. A 
senior couple will pay $8,600.
  In Florida, a couple will have to pay $8,800.
  In California, the figure is $8,200.
  In Nevada, the additional burden will be $6,000.
  The figures vary, but the message is clear: An unfair, unaffordable 
burden on senior citizens in every State to pay for the tax cuts for 
the wealthiest Americans.
  And those who need health care the most will pay even more. Senior 
citizens needing home health services will have to pay an average of 
$1,700 a year for this service alone, on top of the additional costs 
for all their other health needs. Seniors needing nursing home care 
will have to pay $1,400 more.
  The impact on the health care system as a whole is even greater. In 
Massachusetts, the Medicare cuts will mean $9.5 billion less for health 
care over the next 7 years. Mr. President, that is an extraordinary 
figure, $9.5 billion less to the seniors in my State over the next 7 
years. In Florida, the figure is $28.1 billion. In California, it is 
$36.4 billion. In New York, the figure is $18.1 billion. The deep 
Medicaid cuts in the budget will take even more from the health system 
and those in need.
  These cuts will be passed on to elderly people, to those who are on 
Medicare-- which is 97 percent of all of our seniors--with higher 
copayments, higher deductibles and higher premiums.
  Mr. President, I will include in the Record the detailed State-by-
State breakdown of these proposed Republican Medicare cuts. Senior 
citizens in every State will suffer, hospitals and nursing homes will 
close, and the health care system will be of lower quality.
  These numbers speak for themselves, but the impact goes far beyond 
mere numbers. Who speaks for the elderly widow, struggling to survive 
on a fixed income, who must now try to find $1,000 more a year to pay 
for the health care she needs?
  Who speaks for the family who will now be forced to choose between 
medical care for their parents and a college education for their 
children?
  Who speaks for the retired couple who finds that the savings of a 
lifetime must now be sacrificed to pay for the medical care that 
Medicare used to cover?
  President Clinton speaks for them--and so do Democrats in the 
Congress. We will never let these cruel cuts become law. We will never 
let the Medicare trust fund become a slush fund for tax cuts for the 
wealthy. We will never let senior citizens be plundered for the 
benefits they have earned by a lifetime of hard work.
  We do not have to redebate, hopefully, the reason for the development 
of the Medicare system. It is based and built upon a very simple and 
fundamental concept: that the men and women who have built this Nation, 
have made it the great country that it is, who fought in its wars and 
brought it out of the Depression, ought to be able to live their senior 
years in respect and in dignity.
  It is recognized that a test of a civilization is how it regards its 
elders, what respect it pays them. To relieve our seniors from the 
anxiety and the pressures of seniors' health care needs, in the way 
that Medicare has done, is something which is of fundamental importance 
to all Americans. It is this program which will be, I believe, 
devastated, should these proposed cuts go into effect. Once again, we 
have to reiterate that the principal reasons for those cuts to go into 
effect is for the tax cuts that will be available primarily to the 
wealthy individuals in our country.
  The fact is that there is $270 billion proposed for the Medicare cuts 
and about $245 billion for the tax cuts. So if you eliminated the tax 
cuts, you would be able to move ahead with the Medicare program in a 
way that would not present these kinds of burdens on our senior 
citizens.
  Once again, Mr. President, I underline the obvious fact that all of 
us understand; and that is, when our citizens grow older and older, 
that their incomes generally decline and they are dependent upon Social 
Security and they are dependent upon Medicare. At a time when their 
incomes are declining is a time that their health care needs continue 
to grow. It is that fundamental concept that drove this country to 
adopt the health care and the Medicare systems: declining incomes, 
increasing health care requirements.
  This chart reflects exactly who of our fellow citizens are really 
affected: 83 percent of the expenditures go to families with annual 
incomes of $25,000 or less; 21 percent of it goes to those with annual 
incomes of $15,000 to $25,000; 62 percent goes to those with annual 
incomes of $15,000 a year or under--men and women who are being asked, 
with the proposed Medicare cuts, to see a significant increase in out-
of-pocket expenditures,
 copays, deductibles, and premiums. There are $9.5 billion for the 
close to 1 million of my fellow citizens in Massachusetts who benefit 
under the Medicare system.

  I hope that when those Governors meet this weekend up in Vermont, 
someone will ask them how they are going to be able to explain these 
kinds of sizable cuts, and how they will explain them to the people who 
live in my State of Massachusetts, in the State of New York, the State 
of California, the State of Florida, and the State of Texas. We have 
seen that within Massachusetts the burden will be higher than the 
national average, as it will be in Rhode Island and Connecticut--the 
New England States. In these next several weeks as we are debating this 
issue, debating this proposal, those of us who believe and fought for 
this particular program are going to do everything that we can to 
resist.
  I am sure that in my State of Massachusetts, there are the elderly 
widows who are wondering how they are going to be able to afford the 
additional out-of-pocket costs that will be required under the proposed 
Medicare cuts.
  How are they going to be able to handle it? How are the American 
families going to handle it--the sons and daughters of those who are 
receiving Medicare today? These kinds of cuts are not only going to be 
devastating to the seniors, but to their sons and daughters that care 
and love their parents and have a great respect for the dignity of 
those parents. They are going to do everything they can, with scarce 
resources, to be able to make sure their parents are going to be able 
to live with some dignity.
  These kinds of cuts are not only going to be evident on the seniors, 
but they are also going to be a heavy burden on the working families in 
this country, who have lost real income in terms of wages over the last 
15 years. This is going to come at the same time when those families 
are worried about educating their children. We have seen that under the 
Republican proposals, the cost of student loans is going to increase 
some 30 percent, and the total number of Pell grants that will be 
available to well-qualified needy children who can gain admission into 
the finest colleges and universities across this country but need the 
Pell grants to be able to continue their education, their program is 
being deteriorated. Those working families are going to have to make 
judgments about how much they are going to have to make up the out-of-
pocket expenses for their parents, or whether they are going to educate 
their children.
  We know what is going to happen to the families. These couples are 
going to have to make a judgment about how much they are going to pay 
out of their life savings, which was going to be used for their 
retirement.
  Mr. President, these are obscene choices left for our seniors, our 
families, and our children. I daresay this 

[[Page S 10869]]
debate is just beginning. It has not concluded. We will have an 
opportunity to get into greater detail on these measures on the floor 
of the Senate. But I hope, Mr. President, that the Governors of these 
United States--not only my State, but the other States--will be asked 
about the impact of the proposed Republican Medicare cuts on seniors in 
their States. This is going to be a matter of national debate and 
discussion. We can address in a responsible way the needs of the trust 
funds without seeing these dramatic cuts used for tax cuts for the 
wealthiest individuals and corporations. I say no to that. We will 
battle on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and we will battle with this 
President, who has said no to the proposed Republican Medicare cuts, 
and we will fight for our seniors because they have made this Nation 
the great Nation that it is, and we owe them no less. We owe them a 
great deal more.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________