[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 126 (Tuesday, August 1, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 DISENFRANCHISING TENS OF MILLIONS OF ELDERLY AND LOW-INCOME AMERICANS

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                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 1, 1995
  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, on July 25, the president of the National 
Association of Public Hospitals, Larry Gage, testified before the Ways 
and Means Subcommittee on Health on the pending Medicare cuts.
  I'd like to reprint here two paragraphs from his outstanding 
statement--a statement that every Member should read before voting on 
the excessive, destructive Medicare and Medicaid cuts proposed by the 
budget resolution:

       Despite rhetoric to the contrary, these programs have 
     achieved their results for the most part efficiently and 
     economically. Medicare in particular has seen provider 
     payments capped at a growth rate less than inflation for most 
     of the last decade. And current projections for growth in the 
     Medicaid program are largely due to demand for long term care 
     and the growth in the number of recipients, with the poor 
     elderly being a major factor on both fronts.
       For these reasons, it is simply impossible for most 
     analysts to imagine reducing spending in these two programs 
     by almost half a trillion dollars over the next seven years 
     without destroying both programs and disenfranchising tens of 
     millions of elderly and low income Americans. Surely, it is 
     impossible to contemplate implementing positive reforms such 
     as are envisioned in the Committee's new proposal in the face 
     of such reductions.
     

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