[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 158 (Monday, November 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF SENIOR CITIZENS: KYL AMENDMENT WOULD PUT ELDERLY 
      AND DISABLED CITIZENS AT SERIOUS FINANCIAL AND MEDICAL RISK

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                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Sunday, November 9, 1997

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, following is a letter from the National 
Council of Senior Citizens spelling out why the Kyl-Archer amendment is 
bad for seniors and the disabled and for the Medicare Program.
  I urge Members to oppose this amendment. As the public begins to 
understand what this amendment would do, they will overwhelmingly 
reject this proposal and the Members who vote for it.

                          National Council of Senior Citizens,

                              Silver Spring, MD, October 30, 1997.
       Dear Senator: The National Council of Senior Citizens 
     strongly opposes any legislation which would reopen the 
     Balanced Budget Act (BBA) for the purpose of limiting or 
     repealing the two-year bar to any Medicare billings after a 
     doctor enters a private payment contract with Medicare-
     eligible person. Passage of H.R. 2497, the Medicare 
     Beneficiary Freedom to Contract Act of 1997, would decimate 
     the Medicare program by removing cost protections while 
     reducing the supply of doctors serving the needs of the 
     overwhelming majority of Medicare users.
       NCOA opposed, and continues to oppose, the inclusion of the 
     original Kyl Amendment to the Medicare program. Such a 
     provision, allowing a doctor to contract privately for 
     medical care payments outside of the Medicare program, 
     promises to shred three decades of essential quality, 
     consumer, and financial protections which have been 
     incorporated into Medicare.
       As enacted, the Kyl Amendment did include the provision 
     barring for two years other Medicare billings subsequent to 
     an agreement for privately-paid Medicare-covered services. 
     Clearly, this could inhibit widespread utilization of the 
     private contract option by many doctors who have not 
     heretofore, in large numbers, declined Medicare payments. 
     Removal of this bar would open the Medicare program to 
     opportunities for many doctors to coerce patients into giving 
     up their Medicare protection in the name of ``freedom to 
     contact.''
       Fewer than 5% of all doctors decline to treat Medicare 
     patients, and only 1% of Medicare beneficiaries have trouble 
     finding doctors. The current doctor-patient Medicare market 
     works well, with no shortage of physicians willing to accept 
     Medicare payments. H.R. 2497 will allow doctors to legally 
     pick and choose patient-by-patient, service-by-service, and 
     dictate payment levels to vulnerable persons needing 
     professional services. Instead of freedom, this would cripple 
     Medicare's ability to hold down health care costs and would 
     put elderly and disabled citizens at serious financial and 
     medical risk.
       We pledge every effort to defeat H.R. 2497 or any similar 
     bill and to restore Medicare to its responsibility to cover 
     the costs of an essential set of quality medical services 
     provided by competent doctors and institutions on a uniform 
     and universal basis.
           Sincerely,
                                                   Steve Protulis,
                                               Executive Director.

     

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