June 17, 2003

Mr. Chairman, today this Committee embarks on a superficial and rushed markup. Last Friday, you provided the Members of this Committee with a 321-page bill making the biggest changes to Medicare since that program began. And, we received yet another version, now 343 pages, this morning. We have had no hearings on the language, no opportunity to hear from those affected, and no real chance to read and discuss the language. This kind of secret process raises basic questions. Which outside groups had access, and which did not? Who will benefit from particular language?

On April 30, 2003, almost seven weeks ago, Ranking Member Brown and I wrote to you and Chairman Bilirakis making some basic requests – hearings on the specific legislative language, subcommittee markup, and full committee markup. We must now conclude it was not in your power to accord the minority the most fundamental procedural fairness, and to allow the public to scrutinize this proposal. This process is disrespectful to the Committee, to its Members, and to the people we serve. The fear of full and fair public hearings is not consistent with this Committee’s proud history.

And what are we considering in such a hurried and superficial manner? A watered-down drug benefit that only HMOs and private insurance companies can love. And, a major step towards the privatization of Medicare, and away from the Federal Government’s promise to America’s seniors. This is a radical bill that bears little relationship to the prescription drug bill moving through the Senate.

I don’t intend to speak at length on the drug benefit in this bill, as I have made my views known on this at last year’s markup. I will say that it is entirely inadequate. First, it is a faith-based drug plan in that it is a leap of faith to expect HMO’s and other insurers to participate in a drug-only insurance market when they have told us they won’t. We have tried to convince you to have a Federal fall-back plan, like what is in the Senate bill, but you still refuse. You have chosen to take money that could be better used to provide a better drug benefit to seniors, and use it instead to enrich insurance companies.

Second, this will be the first time we will require seniors to go out of traditional Medicare and go to private insurers to receive their benefits. There is no promise that the drug premiums will be affordable. In fact, despite press reports that the premium will be about $35, there is no guarantee in the bill. People in rural or other high cost areas may spend twice as much. Even at the $35 level, seniors will have to pay $420 a year in premiums and $250 in deductibles – for a total of $670 – before their benefits kick in. And for those seniors with significant drug costs, let me be clear to all of you what you get: a whopping coverage gap from $2,000 to $4,900 of drug costs in which you will pay 100 percent of the costs while still paying premiums every month!

But I don’t want to dwell only on the risky and speculative drug benefit in the bill, because the most dangerous feature of this bill has nothing to do with a drug benefit. The bill before us fulfills a life-long dream of my House Republican colleagues to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a privatized scheme. It tells seniors that this society can’t afford to pay for this entitlement – because the cupboard has been stripped bare by huge Republican tax cuts. It reverses 40 years of progress.

The bottom line is that seniors will either have to pay more to stay in traditional Medicare or be forced into HMO’s and change their doctors.

Finally, this bill is filled with nasty little surprises as well. One that hurts my district is cuts to hospitals. This at a time when many hospitals must close their doors. Another is inadequate payments to physicians, at a time when access is jeopardized. And how about this one: my Republican colleagues propose raising the deductible on Part B Medicare in order to raise $8.3 billion. That’s right. They are on the Floor this week worrying about the estate taxes paid by multi-millionaires and with a bill that will cost billions of dollars while they find it necessary to wring $8.3 billion out of our seniors.