[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1229-1230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                ON THE KEEP THE PROMISES ACT, H.R. 3573

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I know you know that this House is very 
attuned to the ongoing debate over reining in the abuses of the managed 
care industry in general. But today I would like to bring attention to 
a more specific injustice, one that is not addressed by the managed 
care reform legislation under consideration by the House-Senate 
conferees committee.
  Mr. Speaker, before this session is out, we need to pass legislation 
that will address the worst HMO in the country, our military health 
care system. As is the case with all managed care abuses, our military 
system is failing to deliver the benefits for which its beneficiaries 
have paid.
  These patients were promised fully funded health care for life in 
exchange for 20 years of military service. That is a defined benefit, 
just like those benefits defined in civilian-managed care plans. You 
pay the premium, and you should receive the benefit.
  Our military retirees paid for their benefit with 2 decades of 
service. In return, they were guaranteed that they would not have to 
pay out of pocket for health care by having access to military health 
care facilities or supplemental insurance, CHAMPUS, that would pay the 
bills at civilian hospitals if military facilities were not available.
  That is the coverage that Sergeant First Class John Nation and his 
wife, Barbara, of Southport, North Carolina, thought they had after 
John served 21 years in the Army. That service included two tours in 
Vietnam with the artillery. Sergeant Nation was certified by the 
Veterans Administration as suffering cancer from exposure to Agent 
Orange during that war.
  Here is the benefit that Sergeant Nation received: because there was 
not an Army or VA hospital within 2\1/2\ hours of their home, they had 
to seek civilian treatment. Because Barbara had private health 
insurance through her job at Carolina Power & Light, CHAMPUS refused to 
accept primary responsibility for John's treatment. When CHAMPUS 
received the portion of John's bills not covered by the private 
insurance, they still refused to pay for the vast majority of the care. 
They told Barbara, his wife, that the charges exceeded their rate 
schedule, so they were not obligated to pay anything. On bills that 
were within their rate schedule, CHAMPUS rejected the majority of 
chemotherapy, radiation, and hospital charges on technical grounds. 
John passed away. Barbara was forced to surrender her entire retirement 
savings to pay the bills rejected by CHAMPUS.

[[Page 1230]]

  Now, I ask every Member of this House, is this fully funded health 
care for life as promised? Does the treatment that Sergeant First Class 
John Nation received from the U.S. Government qualify as having 
provided the benefits that he and his family were promised?
  John Nation honored his part of the contract. We failed to honor 
ours. It is time we made good on our promises to the Nation's military 
retirees; and I urge each and every one of you to support H.R. 3573, 
the Keep Our Promises to America's Military Retirees Act. 260 Members 
have now cosponsored this bill so that we may keep our word. It is 
important that the Federal Government keep its word. You cannot expect 
retention to improve in the military; you cannot expect that people are 
going to stay in as a career, when we will not keep our word to them.
  Mr. Speaker, this should be one of our top priorities, because it is 
the right thing for the United States Government to do for the men and 
women that risked life and limb to defend this Nation.

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