Joe Barton: “I want to recapitulate why we are here this evening taking this Special Order. As I pointed out earlier, Medicare is a…”

“I want to recapitulate why we are here this evening taking this Special Order. As I pointed out earlier, Medicare is a mandatory program for senior citizens over age 65. It was established in 1965, which is 43 years ago. I don't exactly remember in the first year how many citizens were covered and how much money was expended, but my recollection is that several million senior citizens were covered and expenses were in the order of a magnitude of 6 or $700 million. In the last year that we have numbers for, 45 million Americans were covered and the costs were over 400 billion. Now, it is a good thing that we have 45 million senior citizens in this country. Those are our grandparents and great grandparents and great aunts and uncles. They are certainly the generation that has been pointed out that fought the great wars of World War II and Korea and Vietnam. They have ushered in an amazing American economy unsurpassed in the history of the world in terms of its ability to generate wealth and economic prosperity. And they are well deserving of the benefits that we are paying out for Medicare. So the problem is not that our senior citizens don't deserve the best health care in the world, and it is not that we are living healthier and longer. The problem is, quite simply, how do we pay for it. Average expenditures for Medicare are on the order of magnitude of about $7,000 per person per year.”