[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10294-H10295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             REPUBLICAN MEDICARE PLAN WILL DESTROY MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Nadler] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, before a Democratic Congress against almost 
total Republican opposition enacted Medicare into law in 1965, one out 
of every two senior citizens has no health care coverage at all. Today, 
with Medicare, 99 percent of senior citizens have health security. The 
drastic cuts the Republicans propose in Medicare, $270 billion, would 
savage the Medicare Program.
  The Republican Medicare bill will make older Americans pay more and 
get less, not to prevent Medicare from going bankrupt as they falsely 
claim, but to finance a huge tax cut, $245 billion, for the very 
wealthiest Americans.
  The Republican plan will, among other things, according to the 
Washington Times, so increase the Government's burden of proof in 
prosecuting Medicare fraud that the Government would lose about one-
quarter of what it recovers from the crooks and the cheats today.
  The Republican plan will increase out-of-pocket costs for all 
seniors. It will double premiums and increase deductibles. It will 
drastically reduce reimbursement rates to doctors and other health care 
provides so much so as to drive many doctors out of the Medicare system 
and endanger the quality of care provided to seniors. Altogether, the 
Republican bill would cost the average beneficiary at least $2,825 in 
premium and co-payment increases over 7 years, and the average couple 
at least $5,650.

  Americans must know the truth, that the Republican Medicare cuts will 
go straight into the Republican's tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.
  The Medicare trustees tell us Medicare needs $90 billion, not $270 
billion, to remain solvent. The Republicans tell us we have ample funds 
to balance the budget in 7 years, and still pay for a $245 billion tax 
cut. If the Republicans are not lying to the American people, if their 
purpose is, as they say, to save Medicare, why not simply reduce the 
size of their tax cut for the wealthy by $90 billion and place the 
revenues saved in the Medicare Trust Fund? There is no need to force 
seniors to leave the doctors they know and to join unfamiliar managed 
care plans. There is no need to double part B premiums. There is no 
need to increase copayments and deductibles by thousands of dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, to our Republican colleagues we say, simply take $950 
billion from your tax cut for the wealthy and put it into the Medicare 
Trust Fund. You will still have a $155 billion tax cut for your wealthy 
friends and contributors, or is that not enough? Or is the full $245 
billion gift to the very rich so important that you must destroy 
Medicare in order to save it?
  The New York Times recently published an article detailing some 
individual cases, where even with the help of Medicare, medical costs 
are already devastating the financial stability of many seniors. Take, 
for example, Susie Meade, a 78-year-old woman from Florida. The Times 
reports, ``Out of the $6,600 she gets in Social Security a year, she 
pays $1,116 for supplemental insurance, $553 for Medicare, and $1,000 
for prescriptions. She is left with $328 a month to pay her rent and to 
live on.''
  How can the thousands of seniors like Mrs. Meade be free to finance a 
tax break for the very wealthiest Americans?
  Here are just some of the many thousands of letters I have received 
from my constituents opposing these cuts, and there are very many 
stories of people who cannot possibly imagine them.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is a sneak attack on Medicare. The Republicans 
did not campaign last year on a platform of savaging Medicare. They did 
not tell the voters they would double Medicare premiums and increase 
copayments and cut Medicare by $270 billion. Then they kept their bill 
secret until last week, in the hope that the American people will not 
find all of the jokers hidden in the fine print until it is too late, 
until the bill is passed, the deed is done, the money for the $20,000 
tax cut for people making $300,000 a year is provided.

                              {time}  2245

   Mr. Speaker, the American people know how to react and deal with 
sneak attacks. We have endured sneak attacks before. Admiral Yamamoto 
is reported to have said on December 7, 1941, after he received the 
congratulations of his subordinates for the successful sneak attack on 
Pearl Harbor, 

[[Page H 10295]]
``Gentlemen, I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him 
with a terrible resolve.''
  If this sneak attack on Medicare passes tomorrow, the American people 
will again be filled with a terrible resolve and they will know how to 
repay the attackers.

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