[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 24912]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM NEEDED FOR AMERICAN PEOPLE

  (Mr. WATT of North Carolina asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, for the last several years, 
since the passage of the Balanced Budget Act, all health care providers 
who provide medical services under Medicare have been suffering, and we 
have been making efforts to try to address that problem.
  Unfortunately, the bill that is being brought to the floor today will 
give 47 percent of the benefits of the bill to HMOs who provide only 15 
to 16 percent of the health care coverage for Medicare recipients. In 
the process, it shortchanges the other health care providers, such as 
hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, hospices and, more 
importantly, beneficiaries under Medicare.
  Additionally, this bill would break faith with the commitments that 
we made during the census that we would keep all information from the 
census private. We made a commitment. We went out and told people that 
their information would be private. Now the same people who said that 
the information would not be revealed are here offering a bill to 
reveal the information. What a reversal of roles here.
  We should oppose this bill, sustain the President's veto, and get a 
real bill for the American people.

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