[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5385-H5386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN SUPPORT OF THE HOUSE VERSION OF TAX RELIEF, MEDICARE IMPROVEMENTS, 
                    AND MEDICARE CONSUMER PROTECTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to address a few 
issues with my colleagues; first, the tax cuts that have been discussed 
earlier this evening by the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston].
  I think it is good to point out that in the charts that he showed, it 
was interesting to note that 75 percent of the tax cuts would go to 
families with incomes of $75,000 or less, and that every family would 
have a chance to be able to use one tax cut or the other, whether it is 
child tax credits, estate tax relief, education tax credits, and 
capital gains tax cuts, of course, to help create new jobs and savings. 
The last time we had such success was with the Kennedy and Reagan 
administrations.
  Tonight, I also wanted to talk about how the House is on the move in 
the right direction on Medicare, and how we need to stop, therefore, 
the proposal within the Senate in the conference committee. The Senate 
has talked about raising Medicare's age from 65 to 67, to increase 
patient's copay for home care to $5 per visit, and to means-test 
Medicare.
  From the perspective of the House, we want to make sure in the 
conference committee that the House version prevails, Mr. Speaker, 
because that will make sure that seniors who have paid into the system 
will, in fact, get the benefit of knowing at 65 they will have a 
Medicare that in fact will be a cost-effective program for them.
  Currently many seniors, Mr. Speaker, who retire early, either 
voluntarily or forced, are uninsured. These seniors, while eligible for 
COBRA, often find themselves with a gap between the time COBRA ends and 
Medicare begins. By increasing the Medicare eligibility age, we can 
assure an increase in the number of uninsured seniors.
  It also should be noted that the Medicare proposal from the House 
which is so positive includes voluntary choices for seniors with 
Medicare plus. It also provides for traditional fee-for-service 
Medicare, provider-sponsored organizations. It also includes medical 
savings accounts and preferred provider organizations.
  The most important part of the new Medicare proposal, Mr. Speaker, 
has preventive services, a new package of health care benefits for our 
seniors. It includes, among other things, annual mammography screening, 
annual Pap smears, annual prostate cancer screening, colorectal cancer 
screening, diabetes self-management, annual vaccine outreach for 
pneumonia, and influenza. The bill includes these essential items to 
give seniors increased health care coverage when they need it most, 
before they become ill.
  It also includes some very logical, tough, antifraud and abuse 
efforts. It is amazing for people to hear about this, but there is $30 
billion a year in fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare. If we can make 
sure that gets back to seniors from their health care, we will go a 
long way to making sure that Medicare is solvent not only for the next 
10 years but beyond that, Mr. Speaker. That is a very important 
feature.
  We can also reduce the paperwork costs of Medicare. Traditionally it 
has been about 12 percent. With electronic billing we can reduce that 
to 2 percent.
  But some of the most important provisions of the bill make sure that 
we have consumer protection. The bill contains in the House Medicare 
version a wide-ranging series of changes of design to modernize 
Medicare's 30-year-old payment and health care delivery system. Primary 
among them are the new consumer protection. The modernization program 
requires that all Medicare Plus programs make medically necessary care 
available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and 365 days a year. It also 
makes sure that Medicare Plus plans have grievance and appeal 
mechanisms in place to protect beneficiary rights.
  So I am very hopeful that the conference committee, they have 
received letters from a bipartisan group of House Members that have 
gone to the Speaker of the House, the gentleman

[[Page H5386]]

from Georgia, Mr. Newt Gingrich, and they are going as well to the 
minority leader, the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Gephardt, to the 
majority leader, Mr. Lott, in the Senate, and as well to the minority 
leader in the Senate, Mr. Daschle.

                              {time}  2145

  We believe that the House version is a positive one for seniors, the 
one that should pass. We know in fact that it is best because it will 
make sure that we do not have means testing. We stop the co-pay 
increase for home health care and we make sure that the Medicare age is 
not raised from 65 to 67. So all seniors in America will be protected.

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