[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17834]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          EXPRESSING OUTRAGE AT INCREASE IN MEDICARE PREMIUMS

  (Mrs. CAPPS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CAPPS. Madam Speaker, I also rise, like the previous speaker, to 
express my outrage at the recent announcement that Medicare premiums 
will go up by 17 percent in 2005. This will eat up half of a senior's 
Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. At the same time, Medicare 
itself is shoveling an additional $46 billion to managed-care companies 
so that they can push seniors into HMOs.
  This is just another example of how the Bush administration puts the 
interests of the drug and insurance companies over our seniors' 
interests. They passed a bill, written by the drug companies, that 
prevented Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices for seniors and 
blocking reimportation from Canada. The bill pushes seniors out of 
traditional Medicare and puts them at the tender mercies of the HMOs.
  To sum up this President's Medicare policy: seniors pay higher 
premiums and higher drug costs so Medicare can give more money to HMOs 
and the drug companies.

                          ____________________