The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“MEDICARE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H12750-H12751 on Dec. 8, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
MEDICARE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on what my colleague from Ohio said with regard to this Medicare bill that was passed in the middle of the night after the board was held open for 3 hours, even though most Members had voted. I want to say I was back in my district, of course, during the last 2 weeks during the Thanksgiving recess, and my constituents in New Jersey and throughout the State are outraged over this Medicare bill. They see it as nothing more than an effort to privatize Medicare, to change the traditional Medicare program and not to provide them with any kind of meaningful drug benefit. But what is the most amazing, Mr. Speaker, is what we have learned in the 2 weeks since that vote was taken, what we have learned about the arm-twisting that took place to try to influence Members on the Republican side to vote for the bill as opposed to against the bill, and what we have learned about provisions in the bill that many Members were not even aware of that make the legislation even worse.
I just wanted to talk about those two things this morning. First of all, there is now an investigation by the Justice Department into the bribery, alleged bribery or undue influence that was placed on Congressman Smith in an effort by the Republican leadership to get him to change his vote against the Medicare bill and in favor of the bill. He ended up voting against the bill, refused to switch; but supposedly he was told that if he did not switch that $100,000 would not be available from the Republican campaign war chest for his son who was running as a successor for him to Congress. He was told that there would not be support for his son running as a Member of Congress if he did not change his vote.
Statements were made to that effect on the floor of the House of Representatives that suggest that somehow votes are for sale by the Republican Party on the House floor, here in the House of Representatives in these halls, in this Congress that we so dearly value. Bribery, allegations of bribery, and now the Justice Department is investigating it, in an effort to try to twist arms and get Republicans who wanted to vote against this bill because they knew that was the right thing to do and they were trying to convince them to vote the other way.
In addition, those of you who may have read the New York Times yesterday, front-page article talking about how the bill does not allow for seniors to buy MediGap coverage, I knew that this bill was bad and there are a lot of bad provisions in this bill and my colleague from Ohio has pointed out many of them; but many of us were not aware of the fact that the bill precluded MediGap insurance.
Do you know why it precludes MediGap insurance? Because it does not want seniors who are in traditional Medicare, the Republican leadership, the President, the Republican President, do not want seniors who are in traditional Medicare to be able to supplement and buy MediGap insurance. Why would that be? That is because they do not want them in traditional Medicare. They want to force them to go into an HMO to get their drug benefit or force them to buy some kind of drug-only policy which is going to be tremendously prohibitive. So seniors who traditionally have purchased MediGap coverage, supplemental insurance to cover the things that are not provided for in Medicare, are now going to be told, you cannot do that anymore. Imagine, you are a senior citizen, you do not want to join an HMO, you are very concerned about the cost of a drug-only policy which may not even be available in your area, but you cannot supplement your traditional Medicare by buying a MediGap policy, perhaps, that would provide for a nice drug benefit or would make it easier for you in the long run not to expend a lot of money out of pocket. They are now precluding you from doing this.
It is amazing to me. The Republicans talk about choice, that the reason that they wanted to privatize Medicare and do what they are doing with this bill is because they wanted seniors to have choices; but in effect, what they have done is limit seniors' choices. If seniors cannot even buy supplemental MediGap coverage, what kind of choice is that? No choice of a doctor because in order to get the drug benefit you have to join an HMO; but even if you want to supplement your insurance in traditional Medicare, you cannot do it anymore. They are not going to allow Medigap policies anymore.
It is amazing to me when you look at this legislation what went on. A middle-of-the-night vote, twisting arms, bribing Members of Congress, it looks like, allegations are being made at this point, and no choices at all because you are forced essentially into an HMO. And for what? A Medicare prescription drug benefit that is almost completely useless because, as we have said before, you would have to spend so much money out of pocket, probably over $4,000 out of pocket in order to get
$5,000 worth of coverage.
We do not even know what the premium is going to be. The premium for the drug benefit could be $85, $100 a month for all we know. And you are going to have a $275 deductible or perhaps a higher deductible. You are only going to get coverage up to something like $2,000 or so and after that you are going to have to pay out of pocket even though you are continuing to pay the premiums, up to $5,000. It does not even go into effect until 2006. No cost containment whatsoever. It is just amazing. We have got to continue to point out the bad aspects of this bill.
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