[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 194 (Thursday, December 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H14208-H14209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          KEEP MEDICAID INTACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today was National Medicaid Day, and 
myself, and Senator Lautenberg, and a number of other Members of 
Congress, participated in an event on the front lawn of the Capitol 
where we stressed the fact that the Medicaid changes that have been 
proposed by the Republican leadership will have a severely negative 
impact on the low-income people, be they seniors, children, the 
disabled, who now benefit from the Medicaid Program, which is the 
Federal program that guarantees health care for low-income people.
  I was very pleased to see that yesterday when the President signed 
his veto and sent his veto message to Congress in reaction to the 
Republican leadership budget that he stressed the extreme impact, if 
you will, and the unacceptable changes in the Medicaid program that 
were set forth in that Republican budget. I am hopeful that during the 
negotiations that are taking place now over the budget where the 
President and the congressional leadership, particularly the Republican 
leadership, seek to come together on a compromise budget bill, that the 
bill will successfully keep Medicaid intact and guarantee health care 
coverage for those people that are currently covered by the Medicaid 
Program.
  What I think is most important during these negotiations is that the 
Medicaid guarantee, the guarantee that has been around here now for 30 
years, that low-income people have health care coverage, that those 
same eligible people be eligible in guaranteed health 

[[Page H 14209]]
care under whatever comes out of these budget negotiations.
  There has been a lot of talk about flexibility on the Republican 
side, and specifically today a number of Republican Governors came down 
to the capital and stressed that they would like to have flexibility in 
the Medicaid Program and how it is administered, and I agree with that 
concept of flexibility. But the flexibility should not go so far that 
they can declare certain people ineligible for Medicaid and, therefore, 
have no health insurance, or set the standards and the coverage for the 
Medicaid Program so low or so slim, so to speak, that the type of 
coverage that is now provided where certain services, certain health 
care services, are provided, would not be provided or the quality of 
care would be diminished.
  So I am hopeful that we will not only see in these negotiations a 
Medicaid Program that guarantees coverage for those who are not 
eligible for Medicaid, but also that certain minimum standards be put 
in place as to what a health care coverage or what a policy would 
include for low-income people, and lastly that sufficient funding be 
put back into the budget bill for the Medicaid Program so that we do 
not see a decline in quality for the program.

                              {time}  1530

  The President mentioned in his veto message five concerns that he had 
about the Republican budget when it dealt with Medicaid. I would like 
to go through those briefly.
  First, he said that the Republican budget cuts Federal Medicaid 
payments to States by $163 billion over 7 years, a 28 percent cut by 
the year 2002 below what the Congressional Budget Office estimates is 
necessary for Medicaid spending. So the concern here is that if you cut 
Medicaid by 20 percent over what we estimate we need for those who are 
currently eligible for Medicaid, that by the year 2002 States with the 
lesser funds would have to eliminate that many people from the Medicaid 
Program.
  Second, the President mentioned that the Republican bill converts 
Medicaid into a block grant with drastically less spending, eliminating 
guaranteed coverage to millions of Americans and perhaps forcing States 
to drop coverage for millions of the most vulnerable citizens, 
including children and the disabled. This is really the key during the 
budget negotiations. We do not want to eliminate what we call the 
entitlement status of Medicaid, so that certain people are not eligible 
because States decide that they do not have enough money and will not 
cover them.
  Third, the President said that the Republican budget purports to 
guarantee coverage to certain groups but does not define a minimum 
level of benefits. There again, it is not only important that a 
eligible Medicaid recipients continue to be eligible, but that whatever 
package is put together of coverage for them, that those same minimum 
level of services be included for a national standard so that 
individual States can change it.
  Fourth, the President said that the Republican budget purports to 
protect certain vulnerable populations with set-asides, but would cover 
less than half of the estimated needs of senior citizens and people 
with disabilities in the year 2002. The best example of this are those 
particularly vulnerable seniors who are low income, who now have their 
Medicare part B coverage paid, but would not necessarily have it under 
this proposal. As I said again, Mr. Speaker, we will be talking about 
this a lot more. It is most important that Medicaid be guaranteed for 
those low-income people.

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