Date: 1995-06-30
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I thank my colleague. the gentleman from California. for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker. I voted for the Medicare Select bill as it first came up. and now I intend to support the conference committee report. But I have some concern about it. in light of the big picture. That is what we need to look at today on this House floor. I hope the American people are looking at it. particularly those people who are senior citizens. Mr. Speaker. the budget resolution was passed yesterday. planning $270 billion in cuts in Medicare. and at the same time providing tax cuts of $245 billion. I do not .think it makes sense that today. the very next day. we have a conference committee report on Medicare Select. which supplements the same Medicare Program that was cut yesterday. Those of us who support the HMO concept and managed care. still support.the individual making that decision. However. with what happened -yesterday and what will happen over the next few years. we will see that freedom of choice for our seniors and future seniors limited. It has not happened yet. but we are setting the stage for it. as we stand here. I represent the city of Houston in Harris County. We have 286.000 seniors who receive over $1.5 billion in Medicare payments. A $270 billion cut nationally over the next few years will impact those seniors. Mr. Speaker. the Republicans seem to not understand that health care costs are going up. and they are going up because we are -an aging- population. To cut those seniors. -the growth. as they say. will force them to go into more managed care and into Medicare Select like we are seeing today. We are voting on the conference com. mittee report that offers seniors hopefully the goal of more coverage under the HMO and more expansion. but the secret of the HMO concept for seniors is -freedom of choice. their freedom of choice to go into it. not somebody in Washington. a bureaucrat or even their elected Members of Congress saying. "You. have to go to a Medicare Select plan." Mr. Speaker. let me repeat what we are- talking about today. We will see over the next few years senior citizens being forced into the Medicare Select or other HMO programs. removing that freedom of choice as part of the way to save .that $270 billion. That is what people need to understand. That is the fear Ihearfrom my constituents at home. Mr: Speaker. last Monday I was with a hundred senior citizens in the city of Houston. Some. of them were in the Medicare Select or the HMO that is offered -by a number of private contractors. Some of them were happy with it. However. they wanted to make sure it -was their choice. notthe choice of the U.S. Congress or that .of some bureaucrat. We promised. Medicare in 1965. Frankly. if we waited for the Republican majority to provide for Medicare back then. it would not be here today. I guess what I am concerned about is the forced cuts. Mr. Speaker. particularly in the budget bill passed yesterday with the change in the Consumer Price Index. and again in light of what is happening today with this bill. We will see the Consumer Price Index readjusted to where the cost of living increases in Social Security will be reduced. That reduction. with the increase in Medicare expenditures. will cost senior citizens who are now receiving it. and again those who are growing into it. those 60yearolds. those 55yearolds who are looking forward to be able to have some type of security and having medical care when they are over 65. I like the idea of Medicare select. Mr. Speaker. but I do not like the idea when we encompass everything together with the cuts we will see and the forced choices those people are going to have to make. I think that is what we need to be concerned about. I would hope over the Fourth of July recess and over the next couple of months and even over the next few years. because this will not happen today or tomorrow or next week. but it will surely happen with the budget vote yesterday to cut $270 billion out of the growth of Medicare. Mr. Speaker. I hope that all of our Members remember that. when we vote for this bill.