[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19225-19226]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Few if any issues are more important to American 
families than health care--and in few areas has this Administration 
failed more dismally. Its record is marked by inattention, 
incompetence, and outright deception. And because its record is so 
weak, its campaign strategy is based on false attacks on John Kerry's 
plan.
  The Administration's failures have been especially damaging for 
senior citizens and Medicare. Today's seniors built our country. They 
stood by it through World War II and the Cold War, through good 
economic times and bad. Medicare is a commitment to stand by them, to 
guarantee the affordable health care they need in their retirement.
  As George Bush said in his acceptance speech to the Republican 
convention on September 2, ``we have a moral responsibility to honor 
America's seniors.'' He's right about that--but senior citizens know 
that on Medicare, George Bush may say the right words, but he 
constantly does the wrong things.
  The Medicare crisis gets worse every day for our seniors. The 
Administration's Medicare bill was passed by Congress, but only after 
the Administration concealed its true cost--and broke the law in the 
process. Now they are at it again. As the Washington Post reported last 
Sunday, the Administration concealed internal estimates showing that 
the cost of the bill is even higher--$42 billion higher--than they 
admitted in January.
  Last week we learned that the Administration has suppressed estimates 
showing that Medicare cost sharing and premiums will eat up more than 
40 percent of the total Social Security benefit of the typical 85 year 
old. Three weeks ago, the Bush Administration announced the highest 
premium increase in Medicare's entire history.
  That's the Bush doubletalk in action. Pledge to honor our senior 
citizens on September 2, impose the highest Medicare premium increase 
in history on September 3, hide the truth about the erosion of Medicare 
on September 14, and suppress yet another estimate of the cost of the 
Medicare bill on September 19. And that's just in the last three weeks. 
If George Bush gets four more years, senior citizens will fare even 
worse.
  The basic problem with George Bush on Medicare is that he puts the 
interests of drug companies and HMOs first and the needs of senior 
citizens last. The Medicare bill forces 15 million senior citizens to 
pay more for their prescription drugs than they do today. It causes 3 
million retirees to lose their good retirement coverage. It forces 6 
million of the poorest of the poor--the elderly and disabled under 
Medicaid--to pay more out of pocket for their prescription drugs. It 
requires 6 million senior citizens to pay more in premiums than they 
will get back in benefits. Its high deductibles, high premiums and huge 
coverage gaps leave large numbers of senior citizens unable to pay 
their drug bills.
  The Administration's Medicare bill also prohibits safe drug imports 
from Canada, so that drug companies can continue to gouge Americans, 
while citizens of Canada are able to buy the same drugs at half the 
price. The bill prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug discounts so 
that senior citizens can get fairer prices. The bill gives drug 
companies $139 billion in windfall profits. It gives HMO's $46 billion 
in unfair subsidies, instead of using those funds for a decent drug 
benefit or to keep premiums at affordable levels.
  Every major company and every major health plan in America negotiates 
prices for drugs. The Veterans Administration does it to see that 
veterans pay fair prices for the drugs they take. But when it comes to 
using the negotiating power of Medicare, the Bush Medicare bill says, 
``Oh, no--not for senior citizens.''
  George Bush must think the CEOs of the drug companies need senior 
citizens' money more than senior citizens do. Senior citizens are 
living on fixed incomes--and his Medicare bill is a fix to give away 
millions to drug industry CEOs.
  Not only does the Bush Medicare bill block imports of drugs at fair 
prices, the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress won't even 
allow a vote on bipartisan legislation to give senior citizens and all 
other Americans safe access to affordable imported drugs.
  President Bush said in Muskegon, Michigan, two weeks ago that he 
opposed drug imports because he wants to make sure the drugs were safe. 
Our GOP Senate Majority Leader says he won't allow a vote on the issue 
in the Senate, because he wants to protect Americans from unsafe drugs.
  The safe drug argument is a sham. Our bipartisan bill guarantees 
safety. The only drugs that can be imported are drugs approved by the 
FDA and manufactured in FDA approved plants. The fact is that George 
Bush and the Republican leadership won't allow a Senate debate because 
they're afraid to defend their position before the full Senate, afraid 
of the accountability that a Senate vote gives the American people. The 
real safety issue for George Bush is the safety of the profits of the 
big drug companies, not the safety of American patients.
  According to another revelation in the very last paragraph of last 
Sunday's Washington Post article, of all the money that the Bush 
Medicare drug bill lavishes on HMOs, only about 5 percent goes for 
increased benefits to patients. The rest goes for HMO profits and 
excess costs.
  This Administration has been touting all the wonderful extra benefits 
for senior citizens who give up their regular Medicare and join a 
Medicare HMO. That's no justification for the $1,000 in overpayments 
that the Medicare trust fund gives to HMOs. If those extra benefits are 
needed, they should be available to every senior citizen--not just 
those who join an HMO. But it turns out that the vast majority of that 
overpayment--according to the Bush Administration's own estimate--
doesn't benefit senior citizens at all. It benefits HMO profits.
  For this President, when he says ``honor senior citizens,'' he really 
means honor big drug companies and big HMOs.
  President Bush also said this month that health care needs to be 
modernized to ``reflect the world in which we live.'' In the world he 
lives in, it's OK for drug companies to make billions, while seniors 
have to choose between the pills they need and putting food on the 
table. In the world President Bush lives in, the Medicare seniors know 
and trust will be turned over to the tender mercies of HMOs. In the 
world he lives in, he abandons the guarantee of Social Security and 
risks savings by seniors on the whims of the stock market. But that's 
not the world senior citizens live in--and it's not the way to honor 
senior citizens.
  The health care record of the Administration isn't just a failure for 
senior citizens. It's a failure for every American family.
  Health care costs are out of control. Annual spending on health care 
has increased from $1.3 trillion when the Administration took office to 
$1.8 trillion today. That's an increase of half a trillion dollars in 
just four years.
  American families are being pushed to the wall by those cost 
increases. Health insurance premiums have increased 59 percent in the 
past four years. The cost of insurance for a family has increased by 
almost $3,000. This year, premiums for family insurance will climb to 
$10,000.

[[Page 19226]]

  Drug costs are out of control. According to the most current data, 
they increased 52 percent in the first three years of the 
Administration. The President not only hasn't done anything to cut drug 
costs, he opposes any steps that would do something. He won't support 
anything that threatens the swollen profits of his friends in the 
pharmaceutical industry.
  The crisis of the uninsured is also out of control. Under this 
Administration, the number of the uninsured has soared by more than a 
million a year, to 45 million Americans today. Last year, one in three 
Americans--82 million--were without coverage for an extended period. No 
American family is more than one pink slip or one employer decision to 
drop coverage away from being uninsured.
  Whether the issue is health costs, or the number of uninsured, or 
Medicare, President Bush knows he can't run in his record. Instead, he 
tries to divert attention from what he's done by invoking the same 
tired old charges that the right wing always trots out against 
progressive health care solutions--the same charges they made against 
Medicare. In 1964 and 1965, when the Medicare debate was at its height, 
Republicans said Medicare was ``socialized medicine.'' They called it a 
``crackpot scheme.'' They said it was a ``government invasion'' of 
health care.
  Fast forward forty years. Here's President Bush on John Kerry's plan: 
``A government takeover of health care.'' It's a new century but it's 
the same old GOP line.
  The Kerry plan will give all Americans the same access to the same 
affordable, private health coverage that is available to every member 
of Congress and the President, too. Is that a government take-over of 
health care--or is it just plain fair?
  The Kerry plan provides tax credits to help small employers pay for 
private health insurance for their employees. Is that a government 
take-over--or is that just common sense?
  The Kerry plan authorizes people 50 to 64 with serious health 
problems and no access to affordable insurance to buy into Medicare. Is 
that a government take-over--or is that just compassion for people in 
need?
  The Kerry plan helps unemployed workers pay the cost of extending 
their private, on-the-job insurance coverage if they're laid off. 
Government takeover? Let's get serious.
  The Kerry plan expands Medicaid and CHIP for low income adults and 
children so that people whose employer doesn't provide health insurance 
and who can't afford it on their own can get the coverage they need. Is 
health insurance for every American child a government take-over--or is 
it just the right thing to do?''
  The Kerry plan reduces private health premiums for everyone by 10 
percent, by helping private insurance pay for the most costly 
illnesses. Is that a government takeover--or is that a creative idea to 
deal with the explosion in costs?
  The Kerry plan cuts health care costs by reducing sky-high 
administrative costs and paperwork, and by helping doctors and 
hospitals provide better quality care. Is that a government take-over--
or just following the advice of the best medical experts?
  The bottom line is that the Kerry plan will provide quality health 
insurance for two-thirds of the uninsured--27 million people. It will 
lower costs for every American. It will improve quality. It's a good 
idea.
  George Bush knows he can't win the argument if he talks about John 
Kerry's actual proposals, so he resorts to attacks that deceive and 
frighten. The Bush record: failure. The Bush response: fear and smear.
  President Bush knows he can't run on his record, so he's offering the 
old right-wing proposals dressed up in shiny new clothes. They're 
proposals he's had four years to enact, and couldn't, because too many 
Republicans appose them too. They're proposals that won't help working 
families, even if they're enacted. They're nothing more than thinly 
disguised giveaways to special interests.
  It offers refundable tax credits for the uninsured, but the priority 
it places on these credits is so low that it funds them only if 
unidentified, offsetting cuts are made in programs like Medicare and 
Medicaid. The credits are too small to do any good anyway, even if 
they're funded.
  They propose Association Health Plans, but that program has little to 
do with expanding insurance coverage for small businesses and 
everything to do with giveaways to Republican trade associations. The 
Congressional Budget Office says the proposal will actually raise 
premiums for 20 million Americans working for small businesses.
  The Bush plan proposes new tax breaks for the wealthy by squandering 
even more scarce federal funds on Health Savings Accounts. Those 
accounts will cost taxpayers $41 billion over the next 10 years--and 
they will raise premiums 60% or more for people who need conventional 
insurance. Health Savings Accounts say to American families: You don't 
pay enough for health care. You're wasteful. You should spend $3,000 
out of your own savings before health insurance helps you pay your 
costs. That's Alice-in-Wonderland logic--and hard-pressed American 
families won't buy it.
  The President also touts caps on malpractice insurance premiums as an 
answer to rising health care costs. John Kerry has tort reform 
proposals to help doctors faced with excessive premiums. But the idea 
that capping medical malpractice awards will solve the health care 
crisis can't pass the laugh test. Malpractice premiums account for less 
than 2 percent of health care costs, and the Congressional Budget 
Office says that capping awards will produce minimal savings.
  A million and a half low income Americans--500,000 of them children--
have already lost health insurance coverage under Medicaid and CHIP 
because states struggling with budget shortfalls created by the Bush 
recession have cut back on the program. But instead of offering relief 
to states, the Bush budget proposed another $24 billion in Medicaid 
cuts. You don't hear the President talking about that.
  The President said in his acceptance speech that ``America's children 
must also have a healthy start in life.'' He then had the gall to say 
that in his next term ``We will lead an aggressive effort to enroll 
millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the 
government's health insurance programs.'' I have news for the 
President. There are $1 billion in CHIP funds that are now available to 
provide health insurance for children, but that will revert to the 
Treasury at the end of this week. If that happens, 200,000 low and 
moderate income children will lose their coverage. A bipartisan bill is 
now pending to restore those funds, as we have done in the past. But 
it's not even in the President's budget. Who in the world does George 
Bush think he is fooling?
  To control health costs, the Bush Administration would have to take 
on its big contributors in the insurance industry and pharmaceutical 
industry. It won't do that--so it has nothing to offer. To help 
Americans afford health insurance, the President would have to put 
higher priority on health care for working families than on tax breaks 
for the wealthy. He won't do that--so he has nothing to offer.
  President Bush doesn't understand that American families are tired of 
just talk. They want action. He's done nothing for four years to help, 
and now he wants another chance. He doesn't deserve it. John Kerry 
offers real solutions, not excuses and empty promises. It's time for a 
change.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nevada.

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