[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17558-17559]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          MEDICARE PREMIUM INCREASE SQUEEZES SENIORS' BUDGETS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday President Bush got up on his 
$2.5 million podium and crowed about how his Medicare reform bill was 
making health care more affordable for seniors. But less than 24 hours 
later, this administration announced the largest increase in Medicare 
premiums in history.
  Beginning in January, retirees and the disabled will see their 
Medicare premiums rise by $11.60 per month, to $78.20. That is an 
increase of 17 percent. It comes on the heels of last year's whopping 
14 percent increase. The Bush administration deliberately tried to bury 
this bad news, releasing the information late on Friday in the midst of

[[Page 17559]]

a hurricane and leading up to a long holiday weekend. They did that in 
the hopes that seniors would not notice.
  The Social Security COLA will not be generous either. That is why the 
Bush administration needed to stifle news coverage about the Medicare 
premium increase. The Social Security trustees have predicted a 1.3 
percent COLA for 2005. For a retiree receiving the average benefit of 
$895, that amounts to a monthly increase of $11.64.
  After Medicare's premiums go up, seniors will be left with an 
additional 4 cents per month to handle rising expenses. Seniors have 
increasing housing costs, high gas prices, rising grocery bills and the 
prospects of record heating bills this winter, just like everyone else. 
Does 4 cents a month sound like enough of a cost-of-living increase to 
cover inflation and expenses?
  The retirees I know pay very close attention to information about 
their health insurance costs because they need to watch every dime. But 
the same cannot be said of President Bush and the Republican Congress. 
The so-called Medicare reform bill that they are so quick to praise is 
largely to blame for the premium increases and Medicare's ongoing 
financial difficulties.
  The Medicare reform bill, with a price tag of $549 billion, spends 
more money to pad the pockets of corporate executives than it does to 
pay for prescription drugs or for more comprehensive medical coverage 
for seniors. More than 60 percent of the bill's cost is attributable to 
$139 billion in overpayments to pharmaceutical companies, $70 billion 
in subsidies to corporations and $130 billion in overpayments to 
Medicare HMOs. These expenses do nothing to improve the quality of 
health care that seniors receive, but they certainly have a negative 
impact on the affordability of that care.
  Today's retirees will not be the only ones to pay the price for the 
shortsighted, irresponsible agenda of President Bush and the Republican 
Congress. We all will, in today's budget deficits and tomorrow's 
skyrocketing Medicare costs.
  None of the Medicare bill's $549 billion price tag was paid for, 
which means it only adds to the Federal budget deficit. The growing 
budget deficit in turn means that we will not be able to put any money 
aside to shore up Medicare's finances for the impending retirement of 
the baby boom generation. Under this leadership, today's seniors and 
tomorrow's retirees can expect many years of outrageously high 
increases.
  This is just another example of the Bush administration and the 
Republican Congress saying one thing and doing another. It sounds nice 
to say that you have added a comprehensive, guaranteed prescription 
drug benefit; but you did not. It sounds nice to say that you have made 
seniors' health care better and more affordable, but you have not done 
that either. President Bush and the Republican leadership have done 
just the opposite.
  When seniors get their Social Security checks in January and those 
checks are only 4 cents more than what they got last January, they will 
know the difference between your words and your deeds.

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