[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 24910]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         REPUBLICAN MEDICARE CORRECTIONS BILL IS WRONG APPROACH

  (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, at midnight last night the House 
leadership came up with a Medicare corrections bill that reminds me of 
someone who can mess up a one-car funeral. At the end of September, the 
Committee on Commerce considered and passed a bipartisan bill that 
would restore funds for both Medicare and Medicaid programs. The 
bipartisan Committee on Commerce bill froze DSH payments so our 
hospitals could benefit. It established a minimum payment floor for 
community health centers. It delayed across-the-board cuts for home 
health care reimbursements and allowed States to provide CHIP coverage 
for legal immigrant children and pregnant women. It would have provided 
some more funding for HMOs.
  Our bill was a balanced bill. But what do we have now with this 
midnight concoction? We have a bill that is skewed to the HMOs. To give 
47 percent of the money in this bill to HMOs that only serve 15 percent 
of our seniors does not help another senior, and it does not help them 
get any more HMO coverage either. It is frustrating.
  I have a county that the HMOs have bailed out except one. You know 
what we want? If they are going to get more money, they need to agree 
to cover seniors more than for one year and leave them stranded like 
they have in Harris County and Houston, Texas. We do not need to give a 
penny to them until they will agree to cover our seniors.




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