Slashing Home Health Care is Not Reform
December 5, 2009
‘In voting to cut a half trillion dollars from the Medicare program for seniors, our Democrat friends undercut not only the roughly 40 million seniors who depend on Medicare. They also undercut their own promises about reform’
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Saturday regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform:
“The U.S. health care system is in serious need of reform. Costs are too high, they’re rising, and if we do nothing they’ll continue to consume a larger and larger share of federal dollars and of the budgets of millions of middle class American families, of young workers trying to get their start in life, and of seniors.
“For months, the Administration and its allies in Congress promised a solution to these problems, a solution they said would lower costs and help the economy. They assured us that under their proposal anyone who likes the health care plans they have would be able to keep them. And they said their proposal would save Medicare.
“But, in the end, what matters isn’t what we say. It’s what we do. And this week, the proponents of this plan did more with a single vote than they did all year in talking about all the things that their health care plan would do.
“How? Because in voting to cut a half trillion dollars from the Medicare program for seniors, our Democrat friends undercut not only the roughly 40 million seniors who depend on Medicare. They also undercut their own promises about reform.
“As I said, the President and Congressional Democrats have noted again and again that under their measure those who like the plans they have will be able to keep them. After Thursday’s vote, even Democrats are admitting that’s no longer true.
“Here’s how one of our Democrat colleagues put it: “We’re not going to be able to say that ‘If you like what you have, you can keep it.” And then he added, “… and that basic commitment that a lot of us around here have made will be called into question.”
“As for the oft-repeated pledge to save Medicare, well, nobody buys that one after Democrats voted Thursday to cut it by half a trillion dollars.
“These Medicare cuts will impact the quality of care for millions of American seniors. Nearly 11 million seniors on Medicare Advantage will see a reduction in benefits. Hospice care will see massive cuts. Hospitals that treat Medicare patients will see massive cuts. Nursing homes are cut. And more than $40 billion is cut from home health agencies — agencies that provide an appealing alternative to seniors who would rather receive the care and attention they need in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.
“I hear from seniors all over Kentucky worried about the impact these cuts will have.
“Anita, from Hebron, Kentucky, says she’s worried about the impact these cuts will have on her husband, a Vietnam vet with Multiple Sclerosis. Every two weeks, she writes, a home health care nurse visits her husband to perform procedures prescribed by his doctors. Now Anita’s worried those visits might be limited or curtailed under this bill. And it’s not clear they won’t be … Because cutting $40 billion from a benefits program is bound to affect the benefits that people like her husband receive.
“Joy, from Somerset, Kentucky, works for a home health agency. She wrote my office because she’s also concerned about cuts to home health care. She asked me to protect the rights of the chronically ill elderly Medicare population that she and her colleagues care for every day in Kentucky through cost-effective home health care.
“Robin, from Independence, Kentucky writes that her father is almost 80 and receives home health care twice a week. She says he depends on a walker and a wheelchair to get around, and that it’s hard for him to get out of the house. Robin’s father is just the kind of person home health care is meant to help. And frankly, I don’t know what to tell her, except that $40 billion in cuts to this program isn’t a very encouraging sign for people like her dad.
“I noticed that some years ago one of the top senators on this issue on the Democrat side used the very same image I’ve used to decry these cuts. Back then he warned, just as I have in recent months, not to use Medicare as a piggy bank. And yet that’s precisely what our friends are doing with Medicare: they’re not fixing it; they’re raiding it to create an entirely new government entitlement program. In fact, one of the largest single sources of money for this 2,074-page bill is the money they get from Medicare.
“I’m not sure what’s changed since our friends decried cuts to Medicare as immoral and irresponsible. But today I would once again urge them to reconsider their vote from earlier this week. They’ve voted now to cut Medicare, and they’ve now voted twice to cut the important Medicare Advantage program for nearly 11 million seniors.
“Today we’ll have a chance to restore the cuts they authorized to home health care. A vote in favor of the Johanns Amendment is a vote in favor of the men and women who’ve been writing our offices, sharing their stories about the benefits of home health care.
“Americans never expected that health care reform would mean they’d have to give up the health care they have and like. They didn’t expect it because they were told it wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, that pledge was broken this week.
“Today our friends have an opportunity to help repair the damage.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Saturday regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform:
“The U.S. health care system is in serious need of reform. Costs are too high, they’re rising, and if we do nothing they’ll continue to consume a larger and larger share of federal dollars and of the budgets of millions of middle class American families, of young workers trying to get their start in life, and of seniors.
“For months, the Administration and its allies in Congress promised a solution to these problems, a solution they said would lower costs and help the economy. They assured us that under their proposal anyone who likes the health care plans they have would be able to keep them. And they said their proposal would save Medicare.
“But, in the end, what matters isn’t what we say. It’s what we do. And this week, the proponents of this plan did more with a single vote than they did all year in talking about all the things that their health care plan would do.
“How? Because in voting to cut a half trillion dollars from the Medicare program for seniors, our Democrat friends undercut not only the roughly 40 million seniors who depend on Medicare. They also undercut their own promises about reform.
“As I said, the President and Congressional Democrats have noted again and again that under their measure those who like the plans they have will be able to keep them. After Thursday’s vote, even Democrats are admitting that’s no longer true.
“Here’s how one of our Democrat colleagues put it: “We’re not going to be able to say that ‘If you like what you have, you can keep it.” And then he added, “… and that basic commitment that a lot of us around here have made will be called into question.”
“As for the oft-repeated pledge to save Medicare, well, nobody buys that one after Democrats voted Thursday to cut it by half a trillion dollars.
“These Medicare cuts will impact the quality of care for millions of American seniors. Nearly 11 million seniors on Medicare Advantage will see a reduction in benefits. Hospice care will see massive cuts. Hospitals that treat Medicare patients will see massive cuts. Nursing homes are cut. And more than $40 billion is cut from home health agencies — agencies that provide an appealing alternative to seniors who would rather receive the care and attention they need in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.
“I hear from seniors all over Kentucky worried about the impact these cuts will have.
“Anita, from Hebron, Kentucky, says she’s worried about the impact these cuts will have on her husband, a Vietnam vet with Multiple Sclerosis. Every two weeks, she writes, a home health care nurse visits her husband to perform procedures prescribed by his doctors. Now Anita’s worried those visits might be limited or curtailed under this bill. And it’s not clear they won’t be … Because cutting $40 billion from a benefits program is bound to affect the benefits that people like her husband receive.
“Joy, from Somerset, Kentucky, works for a home health agency. She wrote my office because she’s also concerned about cuts to home health care. She asked me to protect the rights of the chronically ill elderly Medicare population that she and her colleagues care for every day in Kentucky through cost-effective home health care.
“Robin, from Independence, Kentucky writes that her father is almost 80 and receives home health care twice a week. She says he depends on a walker and a wheelchair to get around, and that it’s hard for him to get out of the house. Robin’s father is just the kind of person home health care is meant to help. And frankly, I don’t know what to tell her, except that $40 billion in cuts to this program isn’t a very encouraging sign for people like her dad.
“I noticed that some years ago one of the top senators on this issue on the Democrat side used the very same image I’ve used to decry these cuts. Back then he warned, just as I have in recent months, not to use Medicare as a piggy bank. And yet that’s precisely what our friends are doing with Medicare: they’re not fixing it; they’re raiding it to create an entirely new government entitlement program. In fact, one of the largest single sources of money for this 2,074-page bill is the money they get from Medicare.
“I’m not sure what’s changed since our friends decried cuts to Medicare as immoral and irresponsible. But today I would once again urge them to reconsider their vote from earlier this week. They’ve voted now to cut Medicare, and they’ve now voted twice to cut the important Medicare Advantage program for nearly 11 million seniors.
“Today we’ll have a chance to restore the cuts they authorized to home health care. A vote in favor of the Johanns Amendment is a vote in favor of the men and women who’ve been writing our offices, sharing their stories about the benefits of home health care.
“Americans never expected that health care reform would mean they’d have to give up the health care they have and like. They didn’t expect it because they were told it wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, that pledge was broken this week.
“Today our friends have an opportunity to help repair the damage.”
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