[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 175 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H12750-H12751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on what my colleague 
from Ohio said with regard to this Medicare bill that was passed in the 
middle of the night after the board was held open for 3 hours, even 
though most Members had voted. I want to say I was back in my district, 
of course, during the last 2 weeks during the Thanksgiving recess, and 
my constituents in New Jersey and throughout the State are outraged 
over this Medicare bill. They see it as nothing more than an effort to 
privatize Medicare, to change the traditional Medicare program and not 
to provide them with any kind of meaningful drug benefit. But what is 
the most amazing, Mr. Speaker, is what we have learned in the 2 weeks 
since that vote was taken, what we have learned about the arm-twisting 
that took place to try to influence Members on the Republican side to 
vote for the bill as opposed to against the bill, and what we have 
learned about provisions in the bill that many Members were not even 
aware of that make the legislation even worse.
  I just wanted to talk about those two things this morning. First of 
all, there is now an investigation by the Justice Department into the 
bribery, alleged bribery or undue influence that was placed on 
Congressman Smith in an effort by the Republican leadership to get him 
to change his vote against the Medicare bill and in favor of the bill. 
He ended up voting against the bill, refused to switch; but supposedly 
he was told that if he did not switch that $100,000 would not be 
available from the Republican campaign war chest for his son who was 
running as a successor for him to Congress. He was told that there 
would not be support for his son running as a Member of Congress if he 
did not change his vote.
  Statements were made to that effect on the floor of the House of 
Representatives that suggest that somehow votes are for sale by the 
Republican Party on the House floor, here in the House of 
Representatives in these halls, in this Congress that we so dearly 
value. Bribery, allegations of bribery, and now the Justice Department 
is investigating it, in an effort to try to twist arms and get 
Republicans who wanted to vote against this bill because they knew that 
was the right thing to do and they were trying to convince them to vote 
the other way.
  In addition, those of you who may have read the New York Times 
yesterday, front-page article talking about how the bill does not allow 
for seniors to buy MediGap coverage, I knew that this bill was bad and 
there are a lot of bad provisions in this bill and my colleague from 
Ohio has pointed out many of them; but many of us were not aware of the 
fact that the bill precluded MediGap insurance.
  Do you know why it precludes MediGap insurance? Because it does not 
want seniors who are in traditional Medicare, the Republican 
leadership, the President, the Republican President, do not want 
seniors who are in traditional Medicare to be able to supplement and 
buy MediGap insurance. Why would that be? That is because they do not 
want them in traditional Medicare. They want to force them to go into 
an HMO to get their drug benefit or force them to buy some kind of 
drug-only policy which is going to be tremendously prohibitive. So 
seniors who traditionally have purchased MediGap coverage, supplemental 
insurance to cover the things that are not provided for in Medicare, 
are now going to be told, you cannot do that anymore. Imagine, you are 
a senior citizen, you do not want to join an HMO, you are very 
concerned about the cost of a drug-only policy which may not even be 
available in your area, but you cannot supplement your traditional 
Medicare by buying a MediGap policy, perhaps, that would provide for a 
nice drug benefit or would make it easier for you in the long run not 
to expend a lot of money out of pocket. They are now precluding you 
from doing this.
  It is amazing to me. The Republicans talk about choice, that the 
reason that they wanted to privatize Medicare and do what they are 
doing with this bill is because they wanted seniors to have choices; 
but in effect, what they have done is limit seniors' choices. If 
seniors cannot even buy supplemental MediGap coverage, what kind of 
choice is that? No choice of a doctor because in order to get the drug 
benefit you have to join an HMO; but even if you want to supplement 
your insurance in traditional Medicare, you cannot do it anymore. They 
are not going to allow Medigap policies anymore.

[[Page H12751]]

  It is amazing to me when you look at this legislation what went on. A 
middle-of-the-night vote, twisting arms, bribing Members of Congress, 
it looks like, allegations are being made at this point, and no choices 
at all because you are forced essentially into an HMO. And for what? A 
Medicare prescription drug benefit that is almost completely useless 
because, as we have said before, you would have to spend so much money 
out of pocket, probably over $4,000 out of pocket in order to get 
$5,000 worth of coverage.
  We do not even know what the premium is going to be. The premium for 
the drug benefit could be $85, $100 a month for all we know. And you 
are going to have a $275 deductible or perhaps a higher deductible. You 
are only going to get coverage up to something like $2,000 or so and 
after that you are going to have to pay out of pocket even though you 
are continuing to pay the premiums, up to $5,000. It does not even go 
into effect until 2006. No cost containment whatsoever. It is just 
amazing. We have got to continue to point out the bad aspects of this 
bill.

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