[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6046]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RYAN REPUBLICAN MEDICARE PLAN

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, in 1965, when Medicare was passed, only 50 
percent of America's seniors could afford to buy health insurance. That 
was not an accident. It was because the high risk of people over age 65 
made that market basically uninsurable.
  I'm from Connecticut. We know a little bit about insurance in the 
State of Connecticut. Looking at the Ryan Republican Medicare plan 
which would give seniors vouchers to go out and buy insurance, all 
we're asking for is to repeat history, which is where this country was 
in 1965.
  We must protect a guaranteed benefit for seniors. We learned that 
lesson throughout the early 1900s through 1965. The Ryan plan takes us 
back to a time when seniors will be paying massive out-of-pocket costs. 
The CBO estimates it will triple out-of-pocket costs for seniors. It is 
the wrong way to go. President Obama's plan that he laid out yesterday, 
which is a thoughtful, intelligent approach to lower health care costs 
but protects a guaranteed benefit for seniors, is what this country 
needs and what our senior citizens need.

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