[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 19918]]

    REGARDING THE BENEFICIARY IMPROVEMENT AND PROTECTION ACT OF 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 26, 2000

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues on the 
Commerce Committee in introducing the Beneficiary Improvement and 
Protection Act of 2000. 1 want to commend Chairmen Bliley and 
Bilirakis, as well as Ranking Democratic Members Dingell and Brown for 
putting together a Commerce Committee initiative to repair some of the 
damage wrought by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. 1 commend them 
because Members of the Commerce Committee were shut out of this process 
last year and the year before while our Medicare and Medicaid providers 
were hemorrhaging and Medicare beneficiaries across the country were 
suffering. The legislation we are introducing today addresses some of 
the most critical problems with the Balanced Budget Act, but this $21 
billion package, like last year's $16 billion package, is woefully 
inadequate.
  I want to thank Chairman Bliley and Rep. Dingell for working with me 
to include a provision of great importance to me, a clarification of 
the homebound definition for the purpose of permitting people afflicted 
with Alzheimer's Disease to leave the home in order to receive adult 
day care. This is an important amendment that will make a real 
difference in the lives of Alzheimer's patients and their family 
caregivers. However, we need to do even more to help all people who are 
homebound. It's not only homebound Alzheimer's patients in need of 
adult day care. In addition, I believe all Medicare beneficiaries who 
are classified as homebound should be able to get out of their homes to 
attend religious services or once-in-a-lifetime events like the wedding 
of a granddaughter or the graduation of a grandson.
  Mr. Speaker, three years ago, Congress passed the so-called 
``Balanced Budget Act'' claiming it would cut $115 billion from 
Medicare and $12 billion from Medicaid. Mr. Speaker, that $115 billion 
figure has become the Energizer Bunny of Congressional Budget Office 
(CBO) estimates, it keeps growing and growing and growing. CBOs most 
recent estimate from July 2000 shows that Medicare cuts now total $230 
billion. Medicare spending increased by just 1.5% in FY98, it actually 
went down 1% in FY99, and it remained flat in FY2000, increasing by 
just 1.5%
  And by some mystery Mr. Speaker, just as the amount cut from the 
Medicare program keeps growing, so too does the Budget surplus. The 
people in my district have watched in horror as local institutions--
community hospitals and home health agencies--have closed their doors 
for good--a scene I'm sure has played out in many congressional 
district around the country.
  Hospitals in Massachusetts will lose $1.7 billion because of the BBA. 
My hometown hospital, the Malden Hospital is now an outpatient surgical 
center, a far cry from the fall-service hospital of my youth. The 
nearby Boston Regional Medical Center in Stoneham has closed. The 
Symmes Hospital in Arlington is closing. Others in my district are on 
life support. Home health agencies throughout my state have been 
decimated and devastated. Nursing homes are hurting as well.
  Mr. Speaker, in this era of unprecedented surplus, we should be 
restoring $40-50 billion over the next five years and $80-100 billion 
over the next ten to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It would be a 
refund of the amount we overcharged seniors in the BBA. Congress put a 
$115 billion price tag on BBA, but when seniors came to the register, 
they were charged over $200 billion -- and we owe them a refund. I 
don't think that's too much to ask for our seniors, for the men and 
women who built this country. The surplus we enjoy today has been 
generated in large part by these Medicare cuts that have harmed 
seniors. I believe we should give this senior surplus back to the 
seniors, back to the programs that pay for their health care.
  I am pleased that the Commerce Committee has produced a bill that 
deals with some of the most critical aspects of the BBA cuts. However, 
I am hopeful that as we move forward in the few remaining weeks of this 
session, that we will increase the price tag for this giveback 
package--$21 billion is not going to get the job done.

                          ____________________