[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9570-H9571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE CLOCK IS TICKING ON MEDICARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today is Wednesday, and the House is back 
in session. I was told that today in the Committee on Commerce, which I 
am a member of, that we were going to have a Medicare bill from the 
Republican leadership and that we would begin marking up the Medicare 
bill today. Of course, we did not receive a bill. We do not know when 
we are going to receive a bill. The latest information is that 
apparently a bill may be forthcoming either Friday or sometime over the 
weekend, or maybe not for another week or so.
  So the clock keeps ticking and still Speaker Gingrich and the 
Republican leadership have not given us a Medicare bill. I think it is 
very unfortunate. We really do not know what the Republican leadership 
is proposing with these vast changes in Medicare that have gradually 
been leaked out, and we certainly have not had any opportunity for any 
real hearings.
  As some may know, the House Committee on Ways and Means had one day 
of hearings last week. That obviously was not acceptable. We think the 
Democrats feel, and I feel very strongly, that we should have about a 
month worth of hearings and debate on something so important as 
Medicare. As a result, we have decided to have alternative hearings, 
and today was the second day of those alternative hearings out on the 
lawn in front of the Capitol where we heard from people from various 
parts of the community about the problems with the Republican 
leadership's proposal to change Medicare and take some $270 billion in 
cuts in Medicare in order to fund tax cuts primarily for the rich.
  Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to say, I was very pleased today, because 
I have noticed now that not only on Medicare, but also on Medicaid, the 
health care program for poor people, that this is no longer a partisan 
issue in my home State of New Jersey. Increasingly, Republican 
legislators have come out, both on the State and the Federal level, and 
criticized their own party for what is happening to Medicare and 
Medicaid. On the Medicare program for the seniors, today, or I guess it 
was yesterday, in Ocean County, which is the county that I used to 
represent, three State legislators, including Senator Conners and also 
Assemblyman Moran, both of whom have been in the State legislature for 
a long time, came out and had a press conference, sent a letter to 
Senator Dole and to Speaker Gingrich saying that they should scrap the 
Medicare proposal as it is, said that it was not fair to take away the 
money from Medicare to the tune of $270 billion and use it to finance a 
tax cut for wealthy Americans.

                              {time}  2030

  They asked the Speaker and Senator Dole to simply throw the thing 
away. They pointed out, which I thought was very significant, that the 
proposal by Speaker Gingrich to double the Medicare Part B premium for 
doctor bills over the next 7 years was totally unacceptable and that 
seniors in their part of New Jersey, in Ocean County, would not be able 
to pay that Part B premium.
  This is something that myself and other Democrats have been 
complaining about now for several weeks but now we are also seeing 
Republicans in New Jersey coming out very strongly against these 
proposals.
  One of the worst things that happened, not only with regard to 
Medicare but also with regard to Medicaid is that my own committee, the 
Committee on Commerce, last Friday reported out the Medicaid bill that 
essentially the Republican leadership had put together. I have rarely 
seen such a travesty committed against the American people, 
particularly poor people, particularly elderly people.
  The New York Times in an editorial today called it a cruel revision 
of Medicaid. They said, ``Congress shows no signs of slowing its 
assault on the social safety net stitched together over 6 decades. The 
House Commerce Committee tore another hole in the net on Friday by 
eliminating the Federal guarantee of Medicaid insurance for millions of 
poor families. At the same time it voted to slash Federal Medicaid 
spending, virtually forcing States to kick millions of poor children 
out of the program.''
  Let me tell just briefly some of the things that the Committee on 
Commerce did on Friday by a strictly partisan vote, all the Republicans 
voting for it and most except I think for one Democrat voting against 
it. First of all they eliminated all standards for nursing homes. They 
are giving money under Medicaid to the States for the 

[[Page H 9571]]
Medicaid program which primarily pays for nursing home care in this 
country and they are eliminating all nursing home standards. Basically 
unless the State steps in, the nursing homes can do whatever they want.
  The other thing they did was to eliminate any protection for seniors, 
the spouse who stays back at home when the other spouse goes to a 
nursing home. Right now if your spouse has to go to a nursing home and 
pay for it by Medicaid, you can keep your home, you can keep your car, 
you can keep something like $14,000 in assets. That is gone.
  The assault on senior citizens both with the changes in Medicare and 
Medicaid continues. It is very unfortunate. I think it is incumbent 
upon us to continue to speak out against it.

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