FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Wednesday, February 14, 2008
CONTACT: Yoni Cohen, (202) 225-3202

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Representative Pete Stark (D-CA), Chairman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at today's Ways and Means Committee hearing on President George Bush's budget for Fiscal Year 2009 with Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt.

"Mr. Secretary, Chairman Rangel is at the White House for the signing of the economic stimulus legislation. Welcome to the Committee. Having read your written testimony, I don’t know where to start. I have rarely seen an official document filled with so much misleading rhetoric and so few thoughtful suggestions. It is nothing short of disingenuous to claim concern about Medicare’s future after what this Administration has done to the program.

"The “unfunded obligations” that you cite were driven substantially higher by the excessive corporate welfare provided to insurance companies through both Medicare Advantage and Part D.

"While bashing the government, whom you are paid to represent, I might add, you say essentially that Medicare “is a bad system and needs to be changed.” You decry price-setting, but offer no better way to control costs and ensure coverage.

"You suggest we rely on the private sector, but conveniently fail to point out that system costs taxpayers FAR more than traditional Medicare, and we have NO data to know what we are buying. The private sector, at least in Medicare, is neither transparent nor efficient.

"You assert that government is making coverage decisions, but that’s not quite true. In Medicare, physicians tend to drive medical care and the program itself has relatively few coverage restrictions. Regardless, I think any of us who went through the Patients’ Bill of Rights debate can tell you that on the rare occasions when Medicare does make decision, they are considerably more transparent and generous to patients than the arbitrary decisions too often made by private plans whose priorities are profits, not patients.

"Your budget takes a meat ax to a program that, together with Social Security, has substantially improved the health and financial security of American retirees. I predict it will be rejected by Republicans and Democrats alike.

"Before I turn to Mr. McDermott, there is one thing on which we agree. With respect to Medicare, you wrote that, "We need a change in philosophy not just a change in the budget."

"I couldn't agree more. Fortunately, we have only a few months left of this Administration and then we will have change. We need a President who is committed to protecting and improving, not destroying, Medicare. That will be a real change from President Bush's desire to privatize a program that only exists because the private sector wouldn't take care of senior citizens in the first place. Dr. McDermott?"