[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Pages 26053-26054]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. GINGREY of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, health care reform should not 
hurt

[[Page 26054]]

my patients, many of which are seniors. Somewhere in this Capitol 
Building, behind closed doors and away from the public view, the 
Speaker and her liberal allies are rewriting the health care bill that 
they want. We don't know what is going to be included in that health 
care reform bill, despite the allegations of my friend Representative 
Blumenauer earlier this morning. But one thing is for certain; it will 
gut our Medicare program.
  Our seniors have suffered tremendously since this recession began. 
Many of their 401(k)s are now 201(k)s; they have lost 50 percent of 
their value. Yet, my Democratic colleagues don't think the seniors have 
paid enough. So they are asking our seniors to foot the bill for health 
insurance reform by cutting $500 billion from the Medicare program. 
These cuts will result in seniors losing benefits under the Medicare 
Advantage program, such as vision, dental, hearing, and even annual 
checkups. These cuts will result in longer wait times and even make it 
harder for senior patients to find a doctor.
  Mr. Speaker, I say again: health care reform should not hurt our 
seniors.

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