[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4058]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REJECT PLAN TO PRIVATIZE MEDICARE

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the Medicare Commission is expecting 
to hold its final meeting today. The commission's leaders are advancing 
a voucher plan called premium support that will end Medicare's 
guarantee of equal health care to the wealthy, the middle class and the 
poor. The plan would steer Medicare more into the private sector than 
at any time in its history. As former Speaker Gingrich infamously said, 
Medicare would wither on the vine. Privatize Medicare in order to save 
it.
  Clearly, the private insurance market has not provided for the common 
good. A Nation with our wealth should not leave 43 million of its 
citizens without health care. The Labor Department shows unemployment 
still holding steady at 4.4 percent, a rate not seen since 1970. 
Meanwhile, the proportion of Americans without health insurance has 
increased from 14 percent in 1995, to 15 percent in 1996, to 16 percent 
in 1997.
  Turning Medicare over to insurance companies, privatizing it in order 
to save it, will create two Medicares, one for the wealthy and one 
underfunded program for the poor and middle class. We should reject 
that thinking, Mr. Speaker.

                          ____________________