[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22172-22173]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, the Senate Finance Committee 
will start to amend the health care

[[Page 22173]]

proposal that its chairman, Senator Baucus, released last week. Before 
that work begins, I think it is important to remind Americans what this 
plan would mean for them.
  Put simply, this plan calls for more and more government intrusion 
into the health care system and pays for it with $350 billion in new 
taxes and hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts. So in the 
name of cutting costs, this plan raises taxes on virtually every 
American who uses our health care system.
  Here are some of the tax increases in this plan: If you have 
insurance, this plan taxes you in the form of a new tax on insurance 
companies, which will then be passed on to consumers.
  If you don't have insurance, this plan taxes you, too, by saying that 
the consequence of not maintaining insurance is an excise tax that 
could run as high as $3,800 a year.
  If you use a medical device--such as a hearing aid or an artificial 
heart--this plan taxes you, and it also includes new taxes on 
everything from MRIs to contact lenses.
  If you need laboratory tests for prevention, screening or diagnosis, 
this plan taxes them too.
  If you are an employer who can't afford to provide health insurance 
to your employees, this plan taxes you--a tax that businesses across 
the country have warned could kill more jobs in the middle of a 
recession.
  If you, similar to tens of millions of other Americans, take 
prescription drugs, this plan taxes you too.
  This plan also increases taxes on about 1 in 10 family insurance 
policies, according to one policy group, and this tax will extend to 
more and more plans over time.
  In short, if you have health insurance or you don't, you are taxed. 
If you seek preventive care, you are taxed. If you need a medical 
device, well, that is taxed too. At a time when Americans are demanding 
lower health care costs, this plan would drive them even higher.
  As I said earlier, this plan also contains hundreds of billions of 
dollars in Medicare cuts, which will hurt America's seniors. It 
contains $130 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage, a program that 
gives 11 million seniors more choices and options when it comes to 
their health care. One Democratic Senator described these cuts as 
``intolerable.''
  The President recently said that seniors currently on Medicare 
Advantage would be able to get coverage that is ``just as good.'' 
Seniors, however, want to keep the insurance they already have.
  This plan contains nearly $120 billion in Medicare cuts for hospitals 
that care for seniors--cuts that organizations such as the Kentucky 
Hospital Association have warned against because of the negative effect 
they would have on services to seniors in Kentucky and in other States.
  This plan includes more than $40 billion in cuts to home health 
agencies that let seniors receive care in their homes rather than 
having to go into a nursing home. This plan contains $8 billion in cuts 
to hospice care, a service that provides dignity and comfort to seniors 
at the end of life.
  Everyone agrees that Medicare needs reform but, instead of trying to 
address the problems at hand, this plan uses Medicare as a piggy bank 
to pay for new government programs that could very well have the same 
fiscal problems Medicare does.
  Americans want reforms that make care more affordable and keep 
government out of health care decisions. They do not want a so-called 
reform that would actually make care more expensive and would put 
government bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions.
  Americans have sent a clear message to lawmakers in Washington over 
the past months: No more trillion-dollar programs, no more debt, and no 
more taxes. This plan for health care fails all these tests. That is 
why it is so important for the Finance Committee to give this proposal 
serious and careful consideration. I have listed just a few of the 
things that concern people about this plan. With 564 amendments filed 
from both Democrats and Republicans, it is clear we need to slow down 
and take the time necessary to address the serious bipartisan concerns 
about the plan.
  I yield the floor.

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