‘Republicans have been entirely consistent in this debate: Medicare is already in trouble. The program needs to be fixed, not raided to create another new government program. We’ve fought these senseless cuts from the outset. And we’ll continue to fight them’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday regarding the importance of getting it right on health care reform:



“Yesterday some of our friends on the other side were at great pains to explain one of the core pieces of their health care plan. I’m referring of course to the massive cuts in Medicare they plan to make as a way of expanding government’s reach even further into the lives and, more specifically, into the medical care of every American.

“I have no doubt that our friends were reluctant to call for these cuts. But in the middle of a recession, and at a time when more than one in ten working Americans is looking for work, it isn’t easy to find half a trillion dollars lying around. They had to find the money somewhere. And so they set their sights on Medicare.

“Republicans have been entirely consistent in this debate: Medicare is already in trouble. The program needs to be fixed, not raided to create another new government program. We’ve fought these senseless cuts from the outset. And we’ll continue to fight them.



“Democrats, meanwhile, have taken a novel approach. A truly novel approach. They’ve apparently decided there’s no way to defend these Medicare cuts, so they’ll just deny they’re doing it. It hardly passes the smell test.



“Well, here are the facts. According to this bill,

• Medicare Advantage is cut by $120 billion



• It is a fact that hospitals that treat Medicare patients are cut by $135 billion



• It is a fact that home health care is cut by more than $42 billion



• Nursing homes are cut by nearly $15 billion



• And hospice care is cut by $7.6 billion



“These are the cuts that our friends on the other side claim not to be cuts. This is the plan that our friends on the other side have said will ‘save Medicare’ — a talking point so plainly contradicted by the facts, it’s almost impossible to repeat it with a straight face. This cannot be repeated with a straight face.

“One Democrat took this strategy to a new level yesterday when he declared on the floor that it wasn’t even accurate to describe cuts to Medicare Advantage as cuts because Medicare Advantage, he said, is not a Medicare program. That was said right here on the floor of the Senate just yesterday.

“Well, that’s apparently news to the Department of Health and Human Services, which states on its Web site, in words as plain as the alphabet that, quote: ‘Medicare Advantage plans … are part of the Medicare program.’



“And it’s news to the millions of American seniors who depend on this popular program for their care.

“At the moment, Medicare Advantage has nearly 11 million enrollees, looking at it another way that is one fourth of all Medicare beneficiaries.



“And in recent years, this program has proven to be particularly popular with seniors in rural areas who would otherwise have limited access to care. Seniors have shown they want this plan. And I dare say that if you had asked seniors earlier this year what they expected health care reform would look like, it certainly wouldn’t have involved massive cuts to a program that they’ve shown they like and want.

“Medicare Advantage has also been proven to help in a particular way low-income and minority seniors. That’s one of the reasons minorities are more likely to enroll in it. So this program has given a boost to historically disadvantaged populations and given them a greater measure of dignity toward the end of their lives.

“These cuts are bad enough. But despite what our friends have said, the Democrat plan for Medicare Advantage doesn’t stop here because their bill also gives the Medicare Commission explicit new authority to cut even more from this popular program in the years ahead.

“The President has repeatedly said that people who like the plans they have will be able to keep them under his plan. He’s said people currently signed up for Medicare Advantage will have the same level of benefits under his plan.

“Well, common sense tells us that you can’t cut $120 billion from a benefits program without affecting benefits. And the independent Congressional Budget Office confirms what common sense tells us, and they actually quantify it.



“CBO says the bill we’re debating will cut extra benefits that seniors receive through Medicare Advantage by more than half. The fact is, cuts to Medicare Advantage are cuts to Medicare. And if it’s true of Medicare Advantage, it’s true of the other Medicare cuts in this bill. Democrats can deny these cuts all they want. America’s seniors aren’t buying it.

“Now later this afternoon, we’re going to have a Bennet amendment, Bennet of Colorado. As a side by side to Senator McCain’s amendment, which would send back to committee the Medicare cuts in this bill and ask the committee to report it back without them. And so I want to comment briefly on the Bennet amendment and we’re going to have more to say about that during the course of today’s debate.

“This amendment is a shell game, a shell game designed to hide the half a trillion dollars in cuts that I’ve just been talking about. The Bennet of Colorado amendment is a shell game designed to hide the half a trillion in cuts that I’ve just described.

“If the Bennet amendment passes, the bill will still cut a half a trillion dollars from Medicare. Let me say that again, if the Bennet of Colorado amendment passes the bill will still cut a half a trillion dollars from Medicare.

“It does not protect Medicare. There is only one way to protect Medicare and that is to support the McCain amendment.”

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