[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 135 (Wednesday, October 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO RENAME ``MEDICARE+CHOICE'' AS 
                         ``MEDICARE-NO-CHOICE''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 25, 2000

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, sometimes a lie is repeated so often, that 
people forget what a falsehood it is.
  For years, people who want to privatize Medicare have been saying 
that joining a managed care plan--an HMO--will give seniors more 
choice. In 1997, they even renamed the whole HMO program, 
``Medicare+Choice,'' pronounced Medicare Plus Choice.
  What a lie.
  In traditional, fee-for-service Medicare, you have total freedom of 
choice. One of my constituents in Medicare from Fremont, California can 
decide to go to Baltimore's Johns Hopkins, which US News consistently 
rates as the Nation's best hospital, and Medicare will pay.
  But when you join a Medicare+Choice HMO, all of a sudden you are 
limited in the hospitals you can go to and the doctors you can see that 
the HMO and Medicare will pay for.
  So Medicare+Choice really isn't ``more choice.'' More HMOs simply 
mean ``more choices of plans that limit your choice of doctors and 
hospitals.''
  Therefore, let's be honest: to stop the lie and make it clear what 
managed care is all about, I am today introducing a bill that says, in 
its entirety,

       ``Strike the words `Medicare+Choice' wherever it appears in 
     the law, and substitute the words `Medicare-No-Choice'.''

  This name change may seem like a silly idea at first blush, but there 
is a good reason for it. The current name gives the impression that you 
are getting more than you would in traditional Medicare. All too often, 
that is not the case. The reality is that seniors are being duped by 
HMOs each and every day into joining plans that offer the world and 
then take most of those benefits away year by year--if they even remain 
in the program at all.
  ``Medicare-No-Choice''--this name change would give Medicare 
beneficiaries pause and might cause them to look at the details of the 
plan more than is currently the case. And, Mr. Speaker, that is not a 
silly change at all.

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