[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8376-8377]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE FUTURE OF MEDICARE

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Many people didn't notice that a little over 3 weeks 
ago, the Medicare Trustees Report came out and advised that the 
Medicare program would in be serious difficulty in the year 2023.
  Now you might ask, What is Congress doing about this? We have well 
over 10 years to react. The Republican budget

[[Page 8377]]

that was passed a few weeks ago did indeed lay out a pathway for 
dealing with the problems in the future. Unfortunately, the Democratic 
leadership in the other body has decided not to take up any type of 
roadmap or pathway that may lead to a resolution of this problem.
  So we are left with the program that was essentially laid out by the 
President in the Affordable Care Act, and this program relies heavily 
upon a group called the Independent Payment Advisory Board: 15 people, 
not elected but appointed by the President, well paid to sit on a board 
and to deliver to Congress every year a menu of cuts in the amount of 
money that Medicare may spend.
  Now, Congress, true enough, has the ability to accept or reject this 
menu of cuts, but if Congress rejects it, it must come up with its own 
plan. If Congress does not agree--and when has that ever happened?--the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services will have the ability to 
institute those cuts as planned.

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