[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 160 (Tuesday, October 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10142-H10143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MEDICARE AND VA HEALTH BENEFITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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 want to take this opportunity 
to address the House this evening to address a couple of major issues, 
not the least of which is the bill we passed today, H.R. 2353, which I 
was a cosponsor of with the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Hutchinson] to 
extend certain VA health and medical care benefits.
  We extended the priority care for Persian Gulf veterans, the alcohol 
and drug abuse care, nursing home care alternatives, health 
scholarships, and we have also included within that legislation, which 
received bipartisan support, almost unanimous vote of the House, 
residential care for homeless and chronically mentally ill veterans, 
compensated work therapy and therapeutic transitional housing 
demonstration grants, and homeless veterans pilot programs, along with 
a displaying of the POW/MIA flag at all of our VA medical health 
centers, until the President has confirmed to the House and Senate that 
all the POW's and MIA's are accounted for.
  This legislation was part of our committee work and we are happy to 
see that it was adopted today in the House and now moves on to the 
Senate.
  One of the areas in which the general public has great interest, and 
especially the seniors who we are trying to protect with Medicare, we 
have this legislation coming before the House this week. And for those 
in the House who have been working on this issue for a long time, many 
others may ask why are you discussing it this year and why are you 
trying to reform it?
  It was only in April that the President's trustees came back to the 
House and Senate and said that in 7 years, if we do nothing with 
Medicare, we will actually run out of money to have a Medicare health 
care system for our seniors.
  Medicare is the Nation's primary medical assistance program for 
seniors and the disabled. It is composed of two parts: Part A, for 
which an individual automatically qualifies for at age 65. It provides 
hospital, home health, and skilled nursing facility coverage, and is 
paid for by payroll taxes. Those taxes go into the hospital trust fund 
which, by law, serves as the exclusive source of part A funding.
  Part B, a voluntary system in which individuals who qualify for part 
A may choose to enroll, pays for doctor and outpatient service as well 
as medical equipment costs. It is paid for out of the general fund of 
our Government and from premiums paid by beneficiaries
  At this point, health care costs in the country, Mr. Speaker, are 
rising about 4 percent a year. But Medicare has been rising at the rate 
of 10 to 11 percent a year. Anyone can say: How is there such a 
disparate difference? Why is it that health care is a 4-percent 
increase and Medicare is going up at 10 percent?
  A large part of that is the fraud, abuse, and waste which exists in 
the Medicare system, unfortunately.
  Mr. Speaker, $30 billion a year goes to pay for fraud, abuse, and 
waste.
  Under legislation that is before the House this week that legislation 
will address for the first time the enforcement, the speeding up of the 
prosecution of, investigation of fraud abuse and waste that we have in 
the Medicare system. It will establish through legislation that I 
cosponsored with the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays] and 
the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff], this legislation will in 
fact increase the penalties and create for the first time the crime of 
Medicare fraud.

[[Page H 10143]]


  Mr. Speaker, that will go a long way to making sure that our Medicare 
system will become solvent and will in fact be secure and strengthened 
for many years to come.
  But the other alternatives, which are also important to discuss 
tonight, Mr. Speaker, offer not only the fee for services, as has been 
traditional under Medicare, but also offer to beneficiaries the choice 
of a managed care option or medical savings accounts.
  Under the managed care option there could be additional services, 
such as pharmaceuticals available, hearing aids, dentures, and the 
like. Under medical savings accounts, we now have an investment of 
$4,800 per subscriber in Medicare, which under the proposal now before 
the House could go to $6,700 by the year 2002.
  And this increase for medical savings accounts, for the subscriber 
that does not use all the funds for 1 year, they could either keep the 
savings, Mr. Speaker, or have it roll over to the next year's medical 
health care provided.
  In addition to providing the option of fee for service, managed care, 
and also for the medical savings accounts, it would allow providers to 
establish provider-sponsored organizations that can offer the Medicare 
Plus option. That would be for doctors or hospitals to provide, as well 
as the managed care companies, such options for our senior 
constituents.
  It would establish under the legislation a commission to recommend 
long-term structural changes to preserve, protect, and strengthen 
Medicare. It would strengthen the Federal efforts, I may have made it 
very clear, to have the fraud addressed. I said that previously. But it 
would also create a new trust fund funded from both Medicare and the 
Federal Treasury to finance teaching hospitals and graduate medical 
education programs.
  I believe, Mr. Speaker, that while the time is running short, I did 
want to say that to do nothing with Medicare would have us go bankrupt. 
So, it is important that we Republicans and Democrats work together 
this week, the House and the Senate together with the executive branch, 
to make sure that we not only keep a strong Medicare for this 
generation's seniors, but for seniors that follow so that we have a 
strong medical system for many years to come.
  Thank you Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.

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