[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8670-H8671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, today is the 31st anniversary of Medicare. 
Let's stop to think about what a difference Medicare has made in the 
lives of our seniors. Before Medicare, only 46 percent of American 
seniors had health insurance. Today 99 percent are covered. In 1966, 
the poverty rate for seniors was almost 30 percent. Today, fewer than 
10 percent of our Nation's elderly live in poverty.
  Can this possibly be the same Medicare Program that Bob Dole bragged 
about ``fighting the fight * * * voting against Medicare in 1965 * * * 
because we knew it wouldn't work?'' And the same program that Speaker 
Gingrich expects to ``wither on the vine?'' And is it the same Medicare 
that the chair of the Health Subcommittee, Bill Thomas called ``the 
old-fashioned, socialist 1960's top-heavy bureaucratic system.''
  Medicare works. The seniors in my district know it and seniors across 
the country know it. And these same seniors are deeply set against 
cutting Medicare to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. We made a 
pledge to seniors

[[Page H8671]]

31 years ago--Medicare must be protected and continue to provide 
quality health care that seniors can rely on.

                          ____________________