[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 77 (Thursday, May 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5651-H5652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SENIORS, BEWARE OF PROPOSED CHANGES IN HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership budget is being 
negotiated now between the two houses and we may have a motion to go to 
conference within the next day or so. I just wanted to point out once 
again that this budget essentially cuts Medicare and Medicaid in order 
to provide tax breaks for the wealthiest of Americans.
  It is the same old thing that we had last year in 1995. Once again 
Medicare and Medicaid are on the chopping block and seniors are going 
to be given less choices and they will be pushed into managed care, 
which means they will not have the choice of doctors or in many cases 
even the choice of hospitals. And once again they are going to have to 
pay more, because the balanced billing provisions, the protections that 
exist right now that do not allow doctors to charge more or 
significantly more than 15 percent to their Medicare patients will be 
out the window.
  If you stay in the traditional fee-for-service system where you have 
your own choice of doctor or your own choice of hospital, you could be 
charged extra, really unlimited amounts, under the provisions that the 
Republican leadership have placed into this budget.
  Also, what they are doing with the medical savings accounts is they 
are making it so that seniors who opt for a medical savings account, 
which is a catastrophic policy essentially, will

[[Page H5652]]

not have the guarantee of most of the Medicare benefits. For the first 
time in the history of the Medicare program, some senior citizens will 
have the guarantee of all their Medicare benefits and others will not 
because they opt for catastrophic coverage and will not necessarily 
know what they are getting into.
  So beware, seniors, of what the Republicans are doing in this budget.

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