Paul Tonko: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is our pleasure during the next 40-or-so minutes to express concerns about a Medicare program…”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is our pleasure during the next 40-or-so minutes to express concerns about a Medicare program that has served this Nation's seniors so very well for 45 years and is at risk of being ended. Tonight, we witnessed on this floor the third such vote to end Medicare by the Republican majority. We know that our seniors would be forced to shop in a private market. The certainty of a guaranteed program that has been available to our Nation's seniors since 1966 is at risk. The money that the government would kick in for coverage would not keep pace with the costs for those health care policies, and so our seniors would be forced to dig into their pockets, reach into those pockets and perhaps have their costs, their contributions, more than doubled. This is an unnecessary step that is being taken against our Nation's seniors that is irresponsible. We believe that what we have seen since that threshold in time in 1965 when we approved such a measure, the impact from the private sector health care industry has witnessed a growth of over 5,000 percent in the cost of premiums in that time since 1965. The impact on seniors has been certainly far less than that. We have seen the containing of administrative costs, we avoid marketing requirements with the Medicare program, and we have been able to share benefits with our Nation's seniors in a way that protected their health care coverage, that enabled them to enjoy a quality of life.…”