Date: 1995-09-21
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Well. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding to me and my colleague from San Antonio. This is not just the Texas hour here. But it will impact people who are not seniors. not only those who are disabled before they are 65 but the seniors families. We all have family members who are over 65 and enjoy Medicare. because I have shared with my relatives what we had before 1965 when we had no Medicare. and we know the difference between 1964 and 1995 when we had no Medicare. I rise today objecting to this phantom plan that we have that will be released today for two reasons: One. it is a proposed cut. and also objecting to the lack of the public hearings on the proposal. Now. we have been told that the committees have been hearing Medicare proposals and talking about Mediscare tactics on what needs to be done. but we have not actually seen the plan. and we have not seen it as of today. And what they are going to have a hearing on tomorrow. 1 day of hearings is just wrong. The propaganda being dumped on American people by the Republican Medicare plan that will be released. that it is not a cut and just slowing the growth is preposterous. We know that we have to plan. whether we are in business or in government. your expected growth in your business or in your senior population. It is real simple that the population served by Medicare is growing. and there are going to be more people who will be 65 next year than were 65 last year or the year before. The people. thank goodness for our health care successes. are living longer. And yet when they say they are only slowing the growth in Medicare. they are actually going to end up rationing in the cut and in the growth. You either have to push people out of the system or you are going to provide people proportionally with less services. When they reduce that growth. they are affecting not only those who are currently beneficiaries in Medicare but those people who will become 65 next year and the year after and. you know. until the year 2002. If we go back to the days when seniors had to choose between health care and food on their tables. are we going to do that. and I think that is what will happen by cutting a program with a growing population. We will need rationing. Last year I was here. My colleague was still on the Supreme Court of Texas. I was here and involved in the health care reform. and the fear from all of us. and we would have rationing if we had some national health care. Well. here we have.a plan that will create rationing for seniors. and the health care will be rationed to those who can afford to pay more out of pocket. They will be asked to pay more and more of their fixed incomes. which will lower the standardof living for our seniors. Now I have heard and read the articles that everyone has read about how our seniors are so much better off today than they were 30 and 40 years ago. and that is true. That is why Medicare was established. because you realized in the 1940s. and 1950s. and early 1960s. that seniors were being left out of the growth and the benefits of America after they spent their life to build this country. and a number of them literally put their life on the line to make sure this country can still enjoy the freedom. and now we are going to take those people who served in World War II and say. "OK. now you received Medicare. and were going to make you pay more for less." I think your poster is so correct. I say to the gentleman. We need to ask ourselves. "Do you want the force to pay senior citizens to pay more for less service and choose between health care and food? Do you want our elderly loved ones to have to have surgery in a hospital pushed to the brink of bankruptcy due to cuts in Medicare funding?" In my district in Houston we have a number of hospitals that their patient base is substantially Medicare. and Medicaid. and managed care. and managed care is forcing hospitals to transfer those costs to Medicare recipients. and there is just no place to go if you cut the cost of Medicare. You are going to have hospitals close not only in rural areas. but in urban areas. Do you want to have to be operated on by a physician or surgeon whose training may have been reduced by the cuts in Medicare that we do now for medical education? We hear a lot these days about avoiding a train wreck. Well. the seniors of our country will experience one of the most destructive train wrecks in history if this plan is passed. If you answered no to any of these questions. then I hope it is not only our duties as Members of Congress. but our constituents and people all over the country. to oppose this Republican Medicare train wreck that will be fostered on us tomorrow. My second objection is lack of public hearings that we have had to this notyetreleased plan. and here we are Thursday. and you and I have not seen it. Of course we do not serve on the Committee on Ways and Means. so we might not see it even until tomorrow when it is released publicly. But I participated in 10 days of hearings on the Waco incident. I saw 28 days of hearings on Whitewater and 8 days of hearings on Ruby Ridge. and I do not object to those hearings.