[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 29, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H83-H84]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRIVATIZATION OF MEDICARE

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, on Monday President Bush called the 
Medicare program old and tired. He said he wants to give seniors better 
options like those available in the private sector. He said he wants to 
overhaul Medicare. He wants to overhaul Medicare and privatize 
Medicare.
  The President has every right to push his privatization agenda but 
not by co-opting an issue like prescription drug coverage, as emotional 
and important as it is, not by characterizing Medicare as a failed 
program so that he can justify his goal of privatizing it. Whether it 
is Social Security privatization or Medicare privatization, it is 
disingenuous of the administration to portray privatization as 
improving the system.
  The retirement safety net was not put in place because liberals 
wanted to make the Federal Government bigger, nor should it be 
dismantled because conservatives want to make the Federal Government 
smaller. The safety net of Medicare was put in place because the 
private sector could not make a profit offering health insurance to 
seniors, so they stopped doing it. It was put in place because the 
values of this Nation are such that we believe Americans who helped 
build the Nation's unrivaled prosperity through their working years 
should not face financial uncertainty and hardship when they retire.
  Pooling our resources into the public program we call Medicare is the 
best way to provide consistent, equitable, reliable health care 
benefits to our retirees. The stock market and the HMO industry may be 
good at many things, but alleviating uncertainty and providing health 
care are not two of them. Now the future of Social Security and 
Medicare are on the line.
  The President says that seniors deserve better options in Medicare; 
that is why he favors privatization. Is Medicare inferior to the 
private insurance market? Would seniors be better off with a voucher 
that helps pay for coverage in an HMO?
  Medicare is more reliable than private health plans. Medicare offers 
more choice than private health plans. Medicare operates more 
efficiently than private health plans. According to survey after 
survey, including a recent one from nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, 
Medicare far outranks both employer-sponsored and individually 
purchased private insurance as a trusted source, a trusted source of 
health coverage. But the administration wants to give seniors more 
choice and better options in Medicare.
  Is it better to have your choice of HMOs than to be able to choose 
your doctor under Medicare? Is it better to have your choice of HMOs 
than being able to choose your hospital under Medicare? Is it better to 
have your choice of HMOs than to be able to choose where any of your 
health care is delivered, from whomever you want, to the way regular, 
traditional government-sponsored Medicare fee for service works?
  Medicare is a single plan that treats all beneficiaries equally, 
provides maximum choice and access for patients and doctors. Contrast 
that with the President's Medicare voucher program envisioned by the 
administration. Instead of being guaranteed access to needed health 
care services, seniors would be guaranteed access to a partial voucher 
for private health insurance.
  Medicare guarantees full choice of physicians. Private HMOs advocated 
by the administration do not. Medicare guarantees full choice of any 
hospital. HMOs, privatized Medicare; privatized HMOs do not. It appears 
higher-income seniors could afford this voucher plan

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because they could go and buy an additional decent plan. Lower-income 
enrollees would be relegated to restrictive alternatives.
  In other words, when the President uses choice, it is really a code 
word for wealth. Some choice.
  Again, Medicare is a single plan that treats all beneficiaries 
equally and provides maximum choice and maximum access for patients and 
doctors. We should not allow this administration or any administration 
to demonize Medicare, a program that served this Nation so well; nor 
should we permit this administration or any administration to use 
prescription drug coverage as the bait to lure us in this body to 
privatizing Medicare for our seniors.
  Medicare coverage is not old and tired. It is one of the best 
programs government has ever put together. It is simply incomplete 
without a prescription drug benefit. That is the Medicare issue.
  I hope the President will abandon his privatization agenda and work 
with us in this body to add a real prescription drug benefit for all 
seniors. We do not need to fight over perceived and fabricated problems 
in the current Medicare program. The system is not broken. It simply 
needs prescription drug coverage to add to the Medicare system. We need 
to address the real issue.

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