[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 138 (Thursday, September 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MEDICARE IS GOING BROKE

  (Mr. BURR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURR. Mr. Speaker, Medicare is going broke. Not maybe. Not way 
down the road. If this Congress does not address this crisis, our 
Medicare system will be out of money by the year 2002.
  This is not an issue for partisan bickering. This is not an issue 
where business-as-usual is appropriate. The pending insolvency of 
Medicare threatens the availability of health care to more than 32 
million of America's senior citizens.
  The Medicare crisis was defined in April by the Medicare Board of 
Trustees--including Secretaries Reich, Shalala, and Rubin. In their 
report on the status of the Medicare Program, they indicate that ``the 
Medicare program is clearly unsustainable in its present form'' and 
they ``strongly recommend that the crisis presented by the financial 
condition of the Medicare trust funds be urgently addressed.''
  Mr. Speaker, we owe it to our senior citizens to face this Medicare 
crisis head on. It is the responsibility of Congress to fulfill our 
commitment to this country's seniors and initiate Medicare reform 
making this program financially sound now and in the years to come.


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