Frank Pallone: “as we return from the August recess, we face the great challenge of passing a Medicare bill that will provide a good…”

“as we return from the August recess, we face the great challenge of passing a Medicare bill that will provide a good prescription drug benefit for seniors. Republicans in the House passed a bill in July, or June, earlier this year that caters to drug companies, HMOs, and that destroys Medicare. This is obvious for many reasons evident in the detail of the bill. However, I want to highlight two ways in which Republicans are killing the Medicare program and in the process contributing to the endless suffering and hardship of seniors nationwide. Madam Speaker, the Republican bill turns Medicare into a voucher program. This means that traditional Medicare will essentially be phased out by the year 2010. Seniors will find it difficult to stay in traditional Medicare because it will cost them more. They will only be able to afford the private insurance that is available with the voucher given to them by the Federal Government. By making Medicare a voucher program, seniors would be forced into private plans, the same companies that have said in the past that they do not want to cover seniors and have pitiful records of providing them care. Medicare HMOs have not been effective in providing health coverage to the more than 2 million seniors who have seen their coverage disappear over the past 5 years. In my State alone, in New Jersey, Medicare HMOs dropped almost 80,000 seniors from coverage after concluding that Medicare beneficiaries were not profitable.”