[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 61 (Monday, May 6, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MEDICARE TRUSTEES REPORT

  (Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, the Medicare trustees reported last year that 
the part A trust fund, covering all inpatient hospital care, would be 
bankrupt by the year 2002, essentially confirming the findings of the 
Kerrey Commission. However, in light of new Treasury Department 
estimates that the trust fund ran a $4.2 billion deficit through the 
first half of fiscal year 1996, experts, including the former Chief 
Actuary to HCFA, now conclude that the trust fund could be bankrupt in 
the year 2000, just 4 years from now. These facts should propel the 
administration to join the congressional initiatives to preserve 
Medicare. Instead, the April 1 deadline for this year's trustees report 
has come and gone with no White House action. It seems the White House 
is employing stalling tactics and stonewalling Medicare reform rather 
than saving the program. I urge the President to shelve the excuses, 
produce the report and join with the efforts currently underway in 
Congress to save Medicare now. Our Nation's seniors and others 
dependent on Medicare cannot tolerate the same White House failures to 
fix Medicare that we have endured for the last 4 years.

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