Nancy L. Johnson: “I rise today to address the increasingly acute, immediate problems in our Medicare program, one of the pillars of…”

“I rise today to address the increasingly acute, immediate problems in our Medicare program, one of the pillars of retirement security for America's seniors. It is significant that I rise at a time when Republicans, Democrats, the Congress and the President recognize that Medicare must include a new prescription drug benefit. While I strongly agree that we need to add prescription drugs to the Medicare system, we must provide coverage prudently and fairly and not by endangering funding for other Medicare services. Medicare simply cannot tolerate the scheduled deep cuts ahead, much less the billions of dollars in cuts proposed by the President in his budget and in the outline of his prescription drug proposal. I fervently believe that we must address the current problems immediately or hundreds of providers nationwide will close their doors, creating a crisis in access to care for our seniors of unprecedented proportions. My purpose in this speech today is not to address long-term reform of Medicare nor the crying need to provide access to prescription drugs through Medicare, as important as those issues are to strengthening this crucial seniors' security program. My purpose is more mundane and more urgent. It is critical to assuring seniors' access to quality care now and to assuring the survival of critical community health care institutions like our local hospitals, home health agencies and nursing homes.”