Political Quotes

“This evening I would like to raise another issue, and that is lifting of the Medicaid caps for the Territories of the United States, including my home Island of Guam. At the start of this Congress, I, along with other territorial delegates from the Virgin Islands, America Samoa, and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, introduced a bill, H.R. 48, to remove caps on Medicaid payments to the U.S. territories and adjust the statutory matching rate. H.R. 48 is authored by my esteem colleague, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), formerly a practicing physician there. When this bill was first introduced during the 106th Congress, we reported that Medicaid allotments fell far short of meeting the needs of indigent populations in the Territories, and because of depressed economic conditions, high unemployment rates and the rising health care needs of growing indigent populations, the reliance on Medicaid assistance continues to surge way beyond the Federal cap and beyond the Territorial Government's ability to match Federal funds. In Guam, for example, for fiscal year 2000, Medicaid assistance was capped at $5.4 million.”