October 6, 2002

Washington, D.C.- Every day in this country, seniors stretch their limited budgets in an attempt to pay for their rising health care costs. The Medicare program was designed to help them meet this need - to provide adequate funding for the health care of our retirees. The concept is a good one, but the growing number of retirees, along with cuts in Medicare funding, have left the program in crisis. I've been working to address these problems along with other members of Congress, but until a majority of both the House and Senate agree that this is a priority, the problems will continue for future generations- resulting in weakened benefits, poorer health for our seniors, and eventual bankruptcy of the Medicare system.

Created in 1965, Medicare is a nationwide health insurance program for the aged and certain
disabled persons. The program provides broad coverage for the costs of many, primarily acute, health services. Last year, the program successfully covered about 34 million elderly and an additional 5 million disabled persons.

But a deadline has come and gone that has resulted in a decrease of Medicare funding, and some members of Congress have done nothing to stop it. As the end of the 2002 fiscal year, October 1 was the deadline for scheduled cuts to take effect in Medicare coverage of skilled nursing facilities, like nursing homes and extended care hospitals.

Last June in the House, I voted for the Medicare Modernization Bill, which would not only have eliminated the 10 percent cut in funding for skilled nursing facilities, but also would have increased the payment reimbursement level from its previous mark. The bill also provided a much-needed prescription drug coverage for seniors.

The bill passed the House more than three months before the deadline, but unfortunately, the Senate has refused to take up the legislation so that the President can sign it into law. We've enacted similar legislation in previous years to keep these cuts from kicking in, so there's no excuse not to enact similar legislation this year. I hope that the Senate leadership can see the importance of this legislation, so that seniors will stop getting short shrift when it comes to their health benefits.

But seniors aren't the only ones being shortchanged by Medicare. I'm also urging support for a bill that addresses the lower Medicare payments rural hospitals receive compared to their urban counterparts. Since rural areas have lower populations, they receive a lower percentage of funding, even though patients' payroll taxes are an equal percentage. This causes rural areas to subsidize urban areas for Medicare services.

I'm supporting a bill which will raise the minimum Medicare payment rural health care providers can receive, and I'm urging my colleagues to do the same. Rural hospitals are already facing tough times and tighter budgets. What they don't need now is to have an unfair disadvantage versus their urban counterparts in terms of Medicare reimbursement levels.

These are real problems that have real solutions. If all members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, focus on the problems of providing proper funding for the system and eliminating waste and abuse, we will be able to maintain an important program for future seniors. It's in our best interest, after all, since we'll all hopefully be seniors one day.