[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 22, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SENIOR SECURITY IS THREATENED BY ANTI-DUPLICATION NOTIFICATION 
                   PROVISION IN HEALTH INSURANCE BILL

                                 ______


                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 22, 1996

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, there once was a senior from Tupelo. Who had 
so many duplicative health insurance policies, she didn't know what to 
do!
  Before 1980, this was all too often the case. Senior citizens were 
being sold costly health insurance policies that they were told would 
supplement their Medicare coverage. Instead, those policies provided 
them with nothing but a hole in their pocket because most of what was 
covered by the supplemental policy was already covered by Medicare. 
Thus, seniors were paying for worthless health care policies that did 
nothing but break the bank.
  Over the past 16 years, I have helped pass laws that prohibit the 
sale of duplicative health insurance policies to unknowing seniors. I 
have also helped pass laws that require insurance companies to give 
prospective senior purchasers a slip of paper that lets them know that 
the health insurance policy they are buying duplicates some Medicare 
benefits.
  But once again, the House Republicans have kow-towed to greedy big 
insurers and included a provision in their health insurance legislation 
which effectively tosses that slip of paper in the trash--and along 
with it consumer protection for our senior citizens. The Republicans 
want to abolish the law that requires insurance companies to notify 
Medicare beneficiaries before selling them insurance that duplicates 
any of their Medicare benefits. It seems that Republicans are happy to 
let big insurers duplicate benefits--and dupe our senior citizens in 
the process.


                               background

  Sixteen years ago, the Federal Government responded to increasing 
evidence that senior citizens were being sold duplicative, virtually 
worthless health insurance policies. In 1980, Congress enacted the 
Baucus amendments to the Social Security Act, which established 
standards for MediGap, Medicare supplemental insurance, and prohibited 
the sale of health insurance policies which substantially duplicated 
Medicare benefits.
  In 1990, Congress further refined the law by prohibiting the sale of 
health insurance that duplicates Medicare benefits. In 1994, amendments 
to the Social Security Act allowed the sale of duplicative policies as 
long as the policy paid out regardless of other coverage and as long as 
the buyer was made aware of the duplicative services included in the 
supplemental policy. This law empowered seniors, allowing them to make 
good health care purchasing decisions and in the process saved them 
money.


moving backwards--the republican scheme to protect insurance companies 
           at the expense of consumer protections for seniors

  As part of the health insurance legislation, which passed the House 
on March 28th, Republicans slipped a provision into the bill which 
would no longer require insurance sales staff to let seniors know if 
the policy they were selling them duplicated their Medicare benefits. 
That is ridiculous. By eliminating this requirement, we are effectively 
turning back the clock to the days where seniors got ripped-off by 
unscrupulous salesmen right and left. Why would we want to do this to 
our fathers and mothers, our grandmothers and grandfathers? Apparently, 
the Republicans don't care if our families are taken advantage of by 
the insurance companies.


         dump the add-on language, not the consumer protection

  The Senate health care legislation, known as the Kassebaum-Kennedy 
legislation does not eliminate the consumer notification requirement. 
It represents good health policy by providing health insurance security 
for thousands more Americans without putting our seniors at risk. The 
House version which eliminates the notification requirement, eliminates 
security for our seniors by making them targets for abuse by insurance 
companies.
  We must strike the language that eliminates consumer notice 
requirements. Current law protects our seniors by ensuring that 
potential subscribers understand that they may not need the coverage 
provided under the policy they are being asked to purchase. If we do 
not strike this language, senior citizens will look like dollar signs 
rather than educated consumers to insurance sales staff.
  I support the Kassebaum-Kennedy version of the health care 
legislation currently before Congress. We cannot allow the Republicans 
to eliminate the consumer notification protection and put our parents 
and grandparents at risk. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. 
But in this case, seniors pay through the nose and get nothing but 
taken to the cleaners.

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