[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16381]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, every year I hear from hundreds of 
constituents about the transformative impact Medicare has on their 
lives. For many of them, Medicare is literally the difference between 
life and death, between living with dignity or in abject poverty. It is 
as dramatic as that.
  Before we passed Medicare 51 years ago, slightly more than half of 
our seniors--in Hawaii we call our seniors kupuna--had health 
insurance. Only half. The insurance they had was very expensive and did 
not cover much. Millions could barely afford routine medical care, let 
alone treatment for a catastrophic illness. For the past 50 years, our 
seniors have approached retirement with the peace of mind of knowing 
that Medicare will be there for them. It is part of a commitment we 
have made to care for and honor our kupuna.
  To understand what life would be like for our seniors without 
Medicare, we don't need to look to the distant past before we had 
Medicare; we can learn from what happened, for example, 3 years ago to 
a family in Maui, to Phyllis and Tommy Duarte of Maui.
  Phyllis and Tommy contacted my office after they received a notice 
that the Social Security Administration had canceled Phyllis's Social 
Security payments. Like millions of kupuna across the country, Phyllis 
and Tommy live on a fixed income and depend on Social Security to pay 
their bills. After several months without receiving her Social Security 
check, Phyllis could no longer pay the premiums for her Medicare Part B 
plan. They threatened to terminate her coverage, which is when she 
contacted my office. Fortunately, we were able to resolve the situation 
within a few weeks. Phyllis started receiving a check and continues to 
pay her premiums. Only a short time later, Phyllis fell and broke her 
arm. It required surgery and years of ongoing physical therapy. The 
final bill: $200,000. Phyllis and Tommy were only weeks away from 
understanding just how devastating it would be to live without Medicare 
coverage.
  It is because of people like Phyllis and Tommy that I fought tooth 
and nail to make sure Medicare will always be there for our kupuna. It 
is why I have been on the frontlines to beat back every attempt to 
privatize and voucherize Medicare since I have been in Congress.
  That is why I will do everything in my power to stop our new 
President and his allies in Congress from shredding this crucial safety 
net program. Over the past month, Speaker Ryan has made it clear that 
he intends to resurrect his plan to turn Medicare into a voucher 
program for private insurance. Under his system, private insurers could 
deny or delay coverage because seniors would no longer have Medicare's 
consumer protections. His plan caps the value of these vouchers to the 
point where they will not keep up with the rising costs of health care. 
The Congressional Budget Office calculated that the Ryan plan would 
increase out-of-pocket expenses by $6,000 per year for millions of 
seniors--millions who are already on fixed incomes. My colleagues know 
that I am not given to hyperbole, but this attempt to privatize 
Medicare is a clear and present danger to millions of seniors.
  I know from talking with kupuna in Hawaii that one of the things they 
worry about most is their health and whether their needs will be met. 
Anyone who talks to seniors and understands what they are going through 
would recognize that privatizing Medicare means seniors will have to go 
out and find medical insurance on the private market. How can you think 
they will be able to accomplish that? Are insurance companies going to 
step up to take care of some of the most vulnerable members of our 
population even though it is not profitable for them to do so? I don't 
think so.
  During the campaign, President-Elect Trump said the right thing about 
protecting Medicare, but choosing Tom Price to head the Department of 
Health and Human Services sends the opposite message. For years, 
Congressman Tom Price has been Paul Ryan's closest ally in his crusade 
to privatize and voucherize Medicare. The Ryan-Price plan would hurt 
more than 217,000 seniors in Hawaii and millions across the country, 
including those who live in Janesville, WI, and Roswell, GA. I wonder 
how Speaker Ryan and Congressman Price would explain to seniors in 
their districts, their States, how voucherizing Medicare will not hurt 
them.
  Saving Medicare is going to be a daunting fight, but I am not going 
to shy away from it. I am going to do whatever I can, whenever I can, 
to protect Medicare for our seniors.
  I yield the floor.

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