[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 25, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E309-E310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MEDICARE FUNDING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 25, 1997

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, throughout the budget process, funding for 
Medicaid programs will be a frequent topic of passionate debate.

[[Page E310]]

  This is a matter of grave importance--both to the American taxpayers 
and to their duly elected representatives in this constitutional body. 
It deserves careful consideration by all members.
  As we debate possible increases or decreases in the funding of 
various programs included in Medicaid, we must be certain the funding 
is used wisely and as intended.
  A recent issue of the Washington Times included an article by 
nationally syndicated and widely respected columnist Phyllis Schlafly 
which suggests that we may not always know the final destination of the 
money we appropriate to Medicaid. I believe it raises a serious 
question as to the actual usage of taxpayer money--a question worthy of 
consideration by the members of this body. I represent Barrington, IL 
which is referenced in the column, and I am concerned about the 
information Mrs. Schlafly has shared with the public. It is for that 
reason I thought it important to share this with the members of the 
House and have included a copy of the article in the Record.

               [From the Washington Times, Jan. 18, 1997]

                  Smoking Gun in the Medicaid Mystery

                         (By Phyllis Schlafly)

       Medicaid, the federal program that provides health care to 
     people on welfare, is one of the biggest problems that the 
     105th Congress will have to tackle if it is serious about 
     balancing the budget in the foreseeable future. Medicaid 
     costs more than $100 billion a year and is rising far more 
     rapidly than inflation, demographics or poverty can justify.
       The smoking gun, which proves why this dramatic increase is 
     taking place, has just surfaced in an amazing letter sent by 
     the Illinois State Board of Education to school district 
     superintendents. Signed by the board's ``Medicaid 
     Consultant,'' this letter describes in detail how public 
     schools can exploit Medicaid to funnel a fresh flow of 
     taxpayers' money into public schools that bypasses all 
     traditional funding sources and accountability.
       The letter's enthusiasm for spending this new money on 
     virtually anything the bureaucracy desires is matched only by 
     its arrogance in explaining the deviousness of acquiring it. 
     Stating that ``the potential for the dollars is limitless,'' 
     the letter boasts that ``Medicaid dollars have been used for 
     purchases ranging from audiometers to minibuses, from a 
     closed-captioned television for a classroom to an entire 
     computer system, from contracting with substitutes to 
     employment of new special education staff, from expanding 
     existing special education programs to implementing totally 
     new programs.''
       Most Americans think Medicaid is just fulfilling its 
     original purpose of providing health care to people on 
     welfare.
       They should think again, because this letter reveals how 
     politicians and bureaucrats, after taxing us for 
     ``entitlements'' for needy people, then conspire to increase 
     the cost by loading on any projects their avaricious hearts 
     desire.
       This Illinois State Board of Education letter 
     ``encourages'' local public schools to use the experienced 
     State School Board staff in order to ``maximize federal 
     reimbursement'' of Medicaid dollars and use the 
     ``opportunity'' to bill Medicaid for money already spent in 
     1994, '95 and '96. The letter describes two ways public 
     schools ``have found Medicaid to be a viable funding 
     source.''
       The first initiative provides Medicaid funding through 
     school-based health services. Schools may bill Medicaid not 
     just for therapies, but also for ``social work and 
     psychological services, nursing and audiological services, 
     hearing/vision screenings, and transportation.''
       The second initiative allows all schools to claim Medicaid 
     dollars for early and periodic screenings, diagnosis and 
     treatment. The letter states that such services include 
     ``public awareness, i.e., government propaganda, 
     identification and referral, i.e., putting private medical 
     information on a government computer, initial health review 
     and evaluation, initial health review and evaluation, i.e., 
     such as the shocking, unauthorized genital exams given 
     without parental consent to 59 sixth-grade girls in East 
     Stroudsburg, Pa., health provider networking with Planned 
     Parenthood?, and family planning referral to abortion clinics 
     without parental consent?''
       In fiscal 1996, $31.7 million in federal funds were paid to 
     Illinois schools for the first initiative and $40.8 million 
     for the second.
       Medicaid was set up to cover only people on some form of 
     welfare: either Aid to Families with Dependent Children or 
     Supplemental Security Income (a program for seniors). 
     Medicaid is a federal-state matching program, at a ratio of 
     about 60-to-40.
       In 1986, Congress inserted into the law permission for the 
     states to expand Medicaid to cover children in families whose 
     incomes were below the poverty line, whether their parents 
     took welfare or not. That expansion slipped by without the 
     taxpayers discovering it, so in 1990 Congress required states 
     to provide Medicaid coverage to all poor children by the 
     year 2002, and allowed states to extend Medicaid even 
     further to the nonpoor.
       This is one reason why Medicaid costs are going through the 
     roof. In 1986, Medicaid cost about $27 million. This year, 
     Medicaid will cost about $105 billion. By 2002, when the 
     mandate is in full swing, Medicaid will cost at least $133 
     billion.
       Many people were puzzled when President Clinton bragged 
     during last fall's campaign that ``he'' had provided health 
     care for an additional 1 million children. Medicaid is how he 
     did it.
       No way have Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Ira 
     Magaziner abandoned their goal of forcing America to adopt 
     federal health care; they are just bringing it in through the 
     schoolhouse door. When health care is provided by and in the 
     public schools, there is no separating welfare kids from the 
     others. They are all eligible.
       The Illinois State Board of Education letter, signed by 
     Jean Rowe, Medicaid consultant, was dated Oct. 8, 1996, but 
     was not made public and has just been discovered. The copy 
     that came into my hands was addressed to the Barrington, 
     Illinois District, which is one of the wealthiest districts 
     in the United States and proves that Medicaid is no longer a 
     program for the ``poor,'' but is the vehicle to saddle us 
     with the federal medical system that the American people have 
     rejected.

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