[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 154 (Friday, September 29, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1881-E1882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MEDICARE REFORM

                                 ______


                            HON. RON PACKARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 29, 1995

  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, the Clinton administration's trustee's 
report warns the Medicare Trust Fund starts to go broke next year and 
the entire program will go bankrupt in 7 years.
  America's elderly and future generations are at risk. If the fund 
goes bankrupt, the law says the government will make no hospital or 
other trust-paid health services available. We can save Medicare by 
using new approaches, new management, and new technologies.
  Medicare and Medicaid are Government-run health care programs filled 
with fraud and waste--roughly $44 billion each year. Currently, 
Medicare spends more than twice the amount of the private sector and in 
1994 costs rose 11 percent. The plan we purpose will allow for 
increased Medicare spending, but at 

[[Page E 1882]]
a slower rate. If spending increases 6 percent instead of 10 percent as 
Clinton proposes, the trust fund will be solvent.
  We need to create a system that offers the best care at the lowest 
costs. We can save Medicare and improve it, and give seniors the 
greatest control over their own health care.
  If we don't act, our 32 million seniors, 4 million disabled, and our 
future generations will be the ones in jeopardy.

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