[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                MEDICARE PLAN NOT GOING TO KILL MEDICARE

  (Mr. GANSKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GANSKE. Mr. Speaker, I was in my office a few minutes ago when I 
heard a statement made on the floor that I felt I had to respond to. I 
would be ashamed to stand on this floor and say that the balanced 
budget plan, the Medicare plan is going to kill Medicare. That is 
simply not the case.
  I can speak with some credibility to this because I am a member of 
the Committee on Commerce, and in my opening statement on the markup I 
said that I thought a savings of $270 million would be tough and that 
it would be my preference to lower those. And the fact of the matter is 
that the current budget numbers are significantly lower in terms of the 
savings from Medicare. This is a message that I think we are obscuring.
  Can these savings be done that would still give quality Medicare? As 
a physician, I think so. But I will tell my colleagues what will happen 
if we do not. If we do not reform Medicare, in 6 years there are, I 
understand, insufficient funds to pay the bills. Let us get past the 
demagoguery.

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