[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 14, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H2491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  (Ms. CASTOR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, access to the highest quality health care 
for our seniors under Medicare is one of the most important issues 
facing this Congress. Unfortunately, the Bush White House has sought to 
undermine the great Medicare safety net by privatizing a great deal of 
health care under the Medicare system, turning it over to HMOs.
  Just last week the former director of the Centers for Medicare and 
Medicaid Services from 2001 to 2003 spoke at a conference in Tampa and 
a reporter caught him on record saying that this privatization effort 
``was done to prime the pump and to get people to go back to HMOs. But 
it's a much bigger subsidy than we intended.''
  You see, these private plans receive about 11 percent more per 
beneficiary than the government spends in original Medicare. And this 
director said that he had meant for the subsidy to be about half that.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of work to do to stand up for our seniors 
and ensure the Medicare safety net works for everyone.

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