Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday of this week I was here in this Chamber with my freshmen Republican colleagues, and we were preparing to do Special Orders about all the concerns we have with the 1,990-page Pelosi health care bill, and I had this bill with me, and it was in this bag. I was sitting in a chair and I was standing in the row next to it.

I was approached by one of the fine, dedicated public servants we have, employees here in this Chamber that are dedicated to our safety and security. They came up to me because somebody had observed this rather large unidentified object from the gallery and wanted to make sure that it wasn't something left there intentionally, a hazard. I assured him this was not a hazard to the Members here, that this was a 1,990-page Pelosi health care bill. Though, on second thought, it was a hazard, a hazard to anyone carrying it around, being as heavy as it is but a hazard to our health care system here in the country.

Mr. Speaker, my background is health care. Twenty-eight years I worked on rehabilitation services serving older adults, mostly, licensed as a nursing home administrator, dedicated to make a difference in the lives of individuals facing life-changing disease and disability. I am here with tremendous concerns on behalf of our seniors tonight on what this bill does to them.

Let me talk a little bit about Medicare. My Democratic colleagues must consider that Medicare is overfunded. I can tell you that it is not. Medicare today pays on the average of only 80 to 90 cents for every dollar of costs that a hospital or a doctor has, 80 to 90 cents. From the time that entitlement program was created, it was systematically underfunded.

This is a primary reason, actually, that commercial insurance is so expensive because of the underfunding of Medicare. Yet my Democratic colleagues consider Medicare overfunded. Well, how do I know this? Because the bill, this bill in front of me, has over a half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts.

It must be overfunded in their minds if they can make half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts. Where do those cuts fall at and where will they impact seniors? Well, it is going to impact seniors that go into hospitals, Medicare part A, significant cuts there, $175 billion, a minimum of that. That's cuts to those hospitals, and I know hospitals in my district are lucky to make a 1 to 3 percent margin annually. Out of that, they hopefully give cost-of-living increases and invest in new life-saving technology.

But they don't stop there. The Democrats go on to cut Medicare in terms of skilled nursing facilities. Now that's an area where I was licensed as a nursing home administrator. People who go into nursing homes today are the sickest of sick. That's the only alternative they have when they need that high level of skilled care. To cut services there, that's just unacceptable.

Let's move on to Medicare part B. Those are physician services. They are also outpatient services like rehabilitation. When an older adult, a senior citizen, has a disease or disability and they need rehabilitation, well, that's funded by Medicare part B. But Medicare part B, also, under the Democratic plan is scheduled and slated for significant cuts.

Another one that is under Medicare part B is hospice services. Mr. Speaker, hospice services, that's a service that reaches out and provides services to people that are in their end days, people who are in the process of dying. Hospice service allows people to die with compassion and surrounded by friends and pain management. Yet the Democrats feel that Medicare is so overfunded that we can actually make cuts to hospice services.

Medicare part D. Pharmaceuticals. Well, I never heard anybody say that our seniors actually have more than enough resources coming into pharmaceuticals, but that's one of the lines within this.

Then there are wheelchair taxes, medical devices, medical devices that are innovations that help people live with dignity, help people live with independence, to live outside of institutional settings, which are certainly more cost-effective places. Medical devices allow people an opportunity to be able to age in place for seniors.

Now, I assume my Democratic colleagues will assume that the people they tax, that will just come out of their pockets, but we know how that works. Taxes get passed on. And this will be passed on to the people on fixed incomes in this country, and that's unacceptable.

I want to talk briefly about the flawed math that went into this. One of my Democratic freshman colleagues, a Democrat that's on the Rules Committee, I heard him make a statement about how this bill is so much less expensive than the previous version we saw back in July. I have to tell you that's flawed math.

This bill was based on the fact that the Medicare growth rate would be at 4 percent. The average growth rate is 7 to 8 percent. In 2008, Medicare grew at 9 percent.

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