[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9794-H9795]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1115
                      HEALTH CARE IN RURAL AMERICA

  (Mr. de la GARZA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. de la GARZA. Mr. Speaker, I may be one of the few here that voted 
for Medicare, and the counterparts of the Members now that are 
complaining chastised me for having voted for Medicare when it was 
enacted in my first session of Congress.
  I am concerned about rural America and health in rural America. The 
cuts proposed by our colleagues will increase the severe financial 
pressure on rural hospitals, and force some rural hospitals to close. 
Rural hospitals lose money on Medicare patients while urban hospitals 
make a small profit. Medicare accounts for almost 40 percent of the net 
patient revenue in the average rural hospital, as much as 80 percent in 
some rural hospitals. The Republican cut of $58 billion over 7 years, a 
20-percent cut in 2002 alone, will almost devastate most rural 
hospitals. We need to look at that.
  I went throughout my country. I did not see what my colleagues were 
saying in their prepared speeches.
  The Republican Medicare cuts will force 9.6 million older and 
disabled Americans in rural America to pay higher premiums and higher 
deductibles for a weakened second class Medicare Program.
  Medicare spending for people in rural areas of America will be cut by 
$58 billion over 7 years--a 20-percent cut in 2002 alone.
  The Republican cuts will increase the severe financial pressure on 
rural hospitals in America and force some rural hospitals to close. 
Today, rural hospitals lose money on Medicare patients while urban 
hospitals make a small profit. Medicare accounts for almost 

[[Page H 9795]]
40 percent of net patient revenue in the average rural hospital, and as 
much as 80 percent in some rural hospitals.
  According to the American Hospital Association, under the Republican 
cuts, the typical rural hospital will lose $5 million in Medicare 
funding over 7 years.
  Rural Medicare recipients would lose much-needed doctors. America's 
rural Medicare recipients would need 5,084 more primary care physicians 
to have the same doctor to population ratio as the Nation as a whole. 
Yet the American Medical Association has stated that the cuts in 
Medicare are so severe that they ``will unquestionably cause some 
physicians to leave Medicare.'' [New York Times, October 10, 1995.]

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