[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25697]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               MEDICARE PAYMENTS AND THE STATE OF FLORIDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today we kicked off Voices Against 
Violence, a congressional teen conference with a goal of involving 
young people in a nationwide debate on ways for legislators and others 
to prevent youth violence, both nationally and in local schools and 
communities. More than 400 students from across the country will 
participate in the teen conference. I want to thank the gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) for his leadership in making this conference 
possible.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I want to discuss an issue that is very important 
to the citizens of my State of Florida. The cuts in the Medicare and 
Medicaid payments to the health providers in my State are causing a 
crisis.
  With Florida's large senior population, no other single payer impacts 
health care providers in the State more than Medicare. With almost 3 
million Medicare beneficiaries, Florida has the second largest Medicare 
population in the United States. Almost one in every five Floridians 
qualify for Medicare, the highest percent of any State in the country. 
Unfortunately for those hard-working people, the cuts in Medicare 
funding in the Balanced Budget Act are preventing them from getting the 
care that they need and deserve.
  Florida's home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, medical 
equipment providers, Teaching and Disproportionate Share Hospitals are 
in a state of crisis. Especially in the rural areas, these 
organizations are being forced to bear an extreme financial burdens, 
causing them to stretch their budgets dangerously thin and forcing them 
to provide substandard care to their patients.
  Every single day in my office I receive calls and letters from 
patients and their providers who tell me horror stories of people being 
sent home early from the hospital, having therapy cut off before they 
are properly healed, and being denied care altogether. This is not 
right.
  I hear from my colleagues that we have a huge surplus that we need to 
give back to the people. This Congress can start giving it back to the 
people by providing adequate funding for the health care for our 
seniors who have already paid for it and so desperately need it.
  I am glad to hear that my colleagues on the Committee on Ways and 
Means are moving forward on this issue, and I am looking forward to 
working with them to restore these dangerous cuts. Let us do the right 
thing and restore these massive cuts in Medicare reimbursement.

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