[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8267]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRUE COSTS OF REPUBLICANS' MEDICARE PLAN

  (Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues across the aisle have recently 
claimed that current seniors won't be impacted by their plan to end 
Medicare as we know it. This simply is not true.
  From day one their plan would force seniors to pay more for 
prescription drugs and health services because the doughnut hole will 
be reopened and free wellness visits under Medicare would be 
eliminated. As a consequence of the reopening of the doughnut hole in 
my State of New Jersey alone, an estimated 142,800 seniors will pay $80 
million more for prescription drugs in 2012. Additionally, the 
majority's plan to rescind the ban on copays for wellness visits for 
seniors would force at least 30,000 New Jersey seniors to pay over 3 
million more for annual wellness visits next year.
  Once the plan takes effect in 2022, out-of-pocket expenses for 
seniors will soar. A typical 65-year-old in New Jersey would pay $7,060 
more in 2022 for health care costs, more than double the cost under 
current law.
  Mr. Speaker, the majority's plan for Medicare does not preserve the 
program as we know it. Rather, it takes money from seniors' pockets and 
places them at the mercy of rising insurance costs.

                          ____________________