Providing For Consideration of H. Con. Res. 34, Concurrent Resolution on The Budget For Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, we need to work together to change America, to stop borrowing so much money and jeopardizing the future of our country. We agree on that.

But it's important that we understand that it's not the way to do that to end Medicare, and here is what ending Medicare means to the seniors and disabled people of this country. Today, if a person on Medicare has a medical problem, they choose their doctor. The doctor and the patient decide what should happen next and Medicare pays the lion's share of the bill. This is a system that works for America's seniors and works for America's disabled.

How do the Republicans want to change Medicare and end Medicare? This is what they want to do.

You won't choose your doctor, the insurance company will. If a doctor decides that a certain test or procedure is necessary, he or she will have to ask the insurance company's permission to get that test done. And the bill won't be paid by Medicare. The bill will be paid by the insurance company when they feel like it, if they feel like it, for the amount that it should.

The Congressional Budget Office has looked at this issue at the request of Chairman Ryan and concluded that by the end of the implementation of this plan, seniors will pay an extra $6,000 a year out of pocket for health care expenses: $6,000 a year, $500 a month, $125 a week, beyond what they are paying right now for health care.

We will stand for Medicare. We will not stand for this budget. We will defeat it.

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