[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 25386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             MEDICARE CUTS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at the moment, the final details of the 
Democratic health care plan are largely unknown to the American people. 
That is because those details are being worked out in private by a 
handful of senior Democrats and White House officials, but we do know 
the basics.
  The Democratic bill will be about 1,500 pages long, it will cost $1 
trillion, it will raise insurance premiums and taxes, and it will slash 
Medicare for seniors by about $\1/2\ trillion over the next 10 years. 
This much we know.
  We also know where some of these cuts will be made. More than $120 
billion in Medicare cuts for hospitals that care for seniors; more than 
$130 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage, a program for seniors; more 
than $40 billion in cuts to home health agencies; and nearly $8 billion 
in cuts to hospice care. These are major cuts with serious 
consequences.
  Just yesterday I heard about some of these consequences when I met 
with a group that represents hospices across Kentucky, including 
Phillip Marshall, from my hometown of Louisville, who explained the 
situation. He told me these vital facilities depend on Medicare for 
most of their costs and that they make up most of the rest through 
charitable giving and through the generosity of many dedicated 
volunteers. He also told me he has been following the debate in 
Congress, and he is concerned the proposed cuts he is hearing about 
would have a serious effect on hospice care. He is not alone.
  Last month, I received a letter from Brandy Cantor with the Kentucky 
Association of Hospice and Palliative Care. She told me about the 
tremendous emotional and spiritual support hospice care workers provide 
each year to thousands of Kentuckians at the end of their lives, and 
she also told me that the cuts to these programs would have a 
devastating effect on the good work these facilities do.
  I got another letter last month from a Kentucky nurse named Victoria 
Scarborough. She started out by telling me she supports health care 
reform, as we all do, and she wrote, with evident pride, about the 
excellent care the caring people who work in her facility are able to 
provide. To prove it, she related some of the comments she has received 
from patients. One hospice patient wrote that she didn't know what she 
would have done without hospice. Another said she had been treated 
``with the utmost care, love, and concern.''
  This is the kind of care everyone deserves and which we all hope our 
loved ones would receive during a serious illness. But according to Ms. 
Scarborough, the hospice cuts currently being proposed would have a 
serious adverse effect on care.
  I know the bill writers support the compassionate work that is 
provided by hospice care across the country. By mentioning these 
letters, I don't mean to imply otherwise. But I do believe we need to 
be aware of how these cuts will affect real people, and these are just 
the cuts to hospice care, which represent only a fraction of the cuts 
that are being proposed.
  Some of my colleagues will speak today about the dangers of these 
Medicare cuts. They will also talk, as I have many times, about the 
wrongheadedness of using Medicare as a piggy bank to fund a further 
expansion of government health care. We need to strengthen Medicare and 
preserve it for today's seniors and future generations, not slash it to 
create more programs that are bound to have the same fiscal problems 
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security already have.
  I understand the problem of the bill writers. It is not easy to raise 
$1 trillion, particularly at a time when Americans are clamoring for a 
reduction of our record deficits and ballooning debt, but slashing 
Medicare is not the way to go.
  Republicans have suggested another way, and that is commonsense, 
step- by-step reforms that address the problems at hand without raising 
premiums, raising taxes or cutting Medicare. Unfortunately, those 
proposals have been rejected.
  As a result, the threat of these massive cuts to Medicare remains. 
This is not the kind of health care reform America's seniors bargained 
for.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Minnesota is 
recognized.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up 
to 10 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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