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




                   REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP ON MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Salmon). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to underscore the 
importance of the Republican leadership in being at the forefront to 
help senior citizens here in the United States.
  We have looked to the leadership of this House, the Republicans, who 
in a bipartisan fashion this year rolled back the unfair tax that is on 
our Social Security recipients that was placed there in 1993. As well, 
under that same leadership, in a bipartisan vote but led by 
Republicans, the seniors, who have been capped at $11,280 for income 
for those under 70 without having deductions from their Social Security 
allotment, in fact now can earn under our new legislation up to $30,000 
a year without any deductions from Social Security payments.
  This is what many senior groups have asked for and we have responded 
by in fact approving such legislation in this House.
  Now let us look to the major problem that we need to face to make 
sure that Medicare is in fact here not only for the seniors of today 
but for the seniors of tomorrow. We look to the fact that Republicans 
and Democrats in the House are looking to preserve, protect and 
hopefully strengthen Medicare.
  Just look to the President's trustees, Mr. Speaker, back here in the 
spring of the year, when they determined, and that is the Secretary of 
Treasury Rubin, Secretary of Health Shalala and the Secretary of Labor 
Reich, they all said that by the year 2002 if we do nothing, Medicare 
goes bankrupt. No representative in this House or in the Senate could 
responsibly go home after this session and say we did nothing to 
preserve, protect or strengthen Medicare.
  Therefore, we need to look to alternatives of what to do. How do we 
strengthen this system that has provided valuable health care services 
to our seniors the last 30 years?
  We look at health care costs in the country today, Mr. Speaker. Four 
percent is the average health care cost increase that we are having. 
But Medicare has gone up 10 or 11 percent a year. If you just look to 
the fact that fraud, abuse and waste is taking $30 billion a year, that 
has been documented by every important Government agency, including the 
GAO, you will find that that is a large part of how we can solve the 
Medicare crisis.

  I had a Medicare preservation task force meet throughout my district 
this summer, a bipartisan group, asked seniors, those who are 
subscribers, insurance companies, they talked to people who are 
involved in the health care field and said, ``What can we do to change 
it?'' They came up with some solutions which I have passed on to 
legislative leaders of the House and we hope that as a result of those 
task force recommendations, Mr. Speaker, we will have some fundamental 
changes.
  One of the changes they want to see is first, of course, the fraud, 
abuse, and waste eliminated but also the 12-percent cost we put toward 
paperwork--paperwork, Mr. Speaker--instead of health care. We have to 
reduce that. We also had from our task force recommendations that 
beyond having the fee-for-service as an option for our seniors, the 
continued fee-for-service, also talking about the possibility of a 
managed care option, with more services to seniors that they are not 
now getting, possibly dentures or eye care or pharmaceuticals included. 
Also talking about Medisave accounts, where you get $4,800 a year as 
you do now, of course, up to $6,700 by the year 2002, but whatever 
funds you would not use in your visits to the doctor, et cetera, will 
be rolled over, you keep the money or rolled over to the following 
year. Also our task force called for the Inspector General to actually 
implement some of the reforms from the HHS Inspector General which call 
for not paying those subscribers, not paying those who provide the 
health care service substandard care, that we make sure we get 
reimbursement to the system.
  I am also working with the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff] and 
the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays] on legislation to speed up 
the enforcement, investigation and prosecution of those who would 
commit the fraud, abuse and waste.
  I think that we can see, Mr. Speaker, that by working together in a 
bipartisan fashion, we can not only make sure that we have a health 
care system under Medicare for our seniors that is strong and is 
preserved for this generation of seniors but for the next generation of 
seniors to whom we also owe a responsibility.

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