[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 143 (Thursday, September 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   THE REAL QUESTIONS ABOUT MEDICARE

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, my colleague on the other side of the 
aisle asked if we who have spoken about this very important issue of 
Medicare would simply join him in trying to fix it.
  Let me share just a portion of the letters that I have gotten from 
senior citizens who say, ``Yes, fix it, but save Medicare,'' and the 
real questions begin to come out, and those questions are, in fact, 
what the real issues are about Medicare's survival.
  No, it is not bankrupt. Yes, we need to fix fraud and abuse. The real 
question is the $245 billion cut in Medicare that is being proposed to 
pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
  What are the other questions? No. 1, the increased premium costs that 
will go to your seniors and those working-class Americans who have to 
take care of their parents. The other question? The lack of choice by 
seniors and whether or not HMO's will be willing to take the least 
healthy of our seniors, those who are the most sick, and whether or not 
in rural and urban centers in America, those seniors will fall either 
upon you the taxpayer or fall upon hard times because of an inability 
to get proper health care. Those are the real questions I ask my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Let us fix it for the 
seniors. Save Medicare the right way.

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