[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 159 (Friday, October 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H10050]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MEDICAID CUTS WILL HURT RURAL AMERICA

  (Mrs. CLAYTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, the Medicare cuts will hurt, but, for 
rural America, the Medicaid cuts will inflict unbearable pain. The 
majority proposes to cut Medicaid by $182 billion. What do these cuts 
mean?
  They mean that my State will lose $6.76 billion in Medicaid funding 
over the next 5 years--882,000 Medicaid recipients will be affected in 
North Carolina and that number is growing.
  Almost 8 out of 10 of the 31,600 North Carolina nursing home 
residents are covered by Medicaid--who will take care of them at an 
average cost of $38,000 per year? Thirty-one thousand, three hundred 
seniors and other disabled people in North Carolina receive home care 
through Medicaid--who will pay for that?
  Nineteen percent, close to half a million of North Carolina's 
children, rely on Medicaid for their health care needs--these children 
are the poorest of the poor--who will help them? What will happen to 
families and spouses when incapacitated seniors go broke?
  This plan takes us back to the days when the whole family will be 
left with nothing when faced with unexpected, costly illness. Hurting 
our seniors, our indigent, and our disabled is not the way to balance 
the budget--in the end--it only hurts us all.
  Our seniors should grow old with grace, dignity, and security. Next 
week, let's reject this hastily done, insensitive, unthoughtful 
majority plan to take from the poor and give to the rich.

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