[SCHIPing Away at Seniors\' Medicare Benefits]{.underline}

Few issues before Congress are more important than increasing access to
quality healthcare for all Americans.  Unfortunately, this past week\'s
House consideration of H.R. 3162, (a bill to reauthorize the State
Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP) proves that the Democrat
Leadership is more interested in a dramatic expansion of the welfare
state and less interested in providing quality free market access to
health care for our nation\'s uninsured children. 

H.R. 3162 is built on a flawed framework that eviscerates a successful
block-grant supplemental program and creates a permanent entitlement
along the lines of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.  In so doing,
the legislation creates another federal program that runs on auto-pilot
without Congressional approval and eats up a larger share of your tax
dollars every year. 

Under the Democrat plan, states set their own eligibility requirements
and can expand coverage for increasingly well-off beneficiaries if they
choose.  And they would have an incentive to do so, since their Federal
funding allotment would automatically increase!

According to the Heritage Foundation, nine states have already expanded
coverage to people whose incomes **[exceed]{.underline}** 300% of the
poverty level.  With this new proposal to loosen rules even further,
it's not hard to imagine some states increasing eligibility to include
those above 400% of poverty -- creating a new, tax-payer subsidized and
bureaucrat-run healthcare benefit for a family making \$82,600.

I saw this first-hand as a former member of the Tennessee Senate, when
TennCare expanded insurance coverage to provide practically anyone -
rich, poor, and out-of-state residents - access to free government
healthcare during the 1990\'s.  Yet, combined state and federal funding
could not sustain TennCare\'s rising costs, and the program effectively
lowered the quality of health care in Tennessee. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 3162 repeats this
mistake by expanding SCHIP over \$50 billion, bringing the total cost to
\$128.9 billion over ten years.  This legislation also cuts \$193
billion from Medicare over the next ten years, including \$157 billion
from the Medicare Advantage program. Over eight million seniors are
enrolled in the Medicare Advantage program, including 9,000
beneficiaries in the seventh district of Tennessee. 

This scenario could result in seniors losing their current health care
provider or being subjected to increased costs and decreased services. 
After all, fifty-seven percent of seniors currently enrolled in Medicare
Advantage are in the lowest income range---from \$10,000 to \$30,000,
and many of the services provided to these beneficiaries are not
provided to seniors through the traditional fee-for service Medicare. 

Additionally, the reductions to Medicare Advantage will severely impact
seniors living in *rural* areas.  Current law encourages private plans
to provide coverage in rural communities where costs are typically
higher.  So by eliminating this incentive, H.R. 3162 would significantly
decrease access to private coverage in rural areas, forcing seniors back
into traditional Medicare.  

Furthermore, H.R. 3162 includes a provision that allows Congress to walk
away from its responsibility for the long-term health of the Medicare
program.  Current law requires Congress to address the sustainability of
the Medicare program when general revenues will fund more than 45% of
Medicare spending for two consecutive years in the upcoming 7 years. 
That trigger was met in 2006 and 2007.  Yet H.R. 3162 eliminates the 45%
trigger that requires Congress to address the financial challenges of
Medicare in a timely way. 

I offered an amendment to repeal this reckless spending provision, but
the Democrats rejected the amendment to prevent their Members from
taking any action to ensure the future solvency of Medicare.  This is
not only irresponsible, it is also one of the most egregious abdications
of responsibility I have seen during my time in Congress.

The bill cynically chops out the income limit for eligibility, and
expands the eligibility pool to include "children" up to the age of 21. 
Do 21 year old young men and women deserve government-funded healthcare
benefits at the expense of elderly Medicare beneficiaries?  It also
institutes a substantial tobacco tax increase (above and beyond the .42
cent increase levied by the State Government this year).  In addition,
it enacts a tax on every private insurance policy.

And the cuts do not stop there.  In perhaps the most outrageous blow to
common sense healthcare policy, H.R. 3162 repeals current law that
requires proof of citizenship when enrolling in the Medicaid program.
 So while illegal immigrants enjoy access to government-funded health
benefits, seniors are left holding the bag.

The liberal leadership in Congress knows that it does not have the
support of the American public to construct a full-blown socialized
healthcare system. Instead, they're pretending that this radical change
in policy is a simple update to a popular, long-established program \--
a tactic that the *Wall Street Journal* termed "slow-motion socialism." 

Experience has taught us that the best way to ensure quality coverage
for all is to encourage individual choice and let the free market work,
but H.R. 3162 ignores this record.  That is why I voted against this
bill, and encourage the President to veto the legislation should it ever
reach his desk.