[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 15793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SENSIBLE MEDICARE REFORMS

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, as Congress this week considers the largest 
expansion of Medicare in 35 years, we should begin with the 
understanding that Medicare has actually cost the American taxpayers 
7\1/2\ times in real dollars what it was projected to cost. And while 
the needs for some prescription drug for some seniors is very, very 
real, it is important also to recall that 76 percent of seniors in 
America today have prescription drug coverage.
  I would offer that our reforms this week should be about focusing 
solutions at the point of the need. Let us help our seniors near the 
poverty level with urgent and sufficient prescription drug coverage. 
Let us reform Medicare so it will be there for the future without 
placing an undue burden on our children and grandchildren. Let us 
otherwise do no harm to the private sector foundation of the greatest 
health care system in the history of the world.
  For all these reasons I will oppose a universal drug benefit in 
Medicare. By agreeing to a prescription drug benefit for all seniors 
rather than just those in need, Congress threatens our Nation's fiscal 
stability, our own private prescription plans, and the survival of our 
free market health care system.
  One more massive Federal entitlement is, simply put, a prescription 
for disaster.

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