Opening Statement of the Hon. Bill Thomas, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, 
and Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means 

Hearing on the President's Fiscal Year 2003 Budget

February 6, 2002

Good morning, and welcome to the Committee's second hearing on the President's fiscal year 2003 budget.  This morning we will hear from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

The President's budget lays out three clear and concise priorities:  win the war, protect our homeland, and revive the economy.  These, to a great extent, relate to the tragic events of September 11th.  Almost eight million Americans are now unemployed, many of them without access to affordable health insurance.  This House addressed that issue last year.  The Senate's failure to act on stimulus means the unemployed are still waiting. 

The President's budget includes $90 billion in refundable and advancable health care tax credits for the unemployed and other uninsured.

As the first of the baby boomers approach retirement age, this budget takes steps toward providing retirement security.  Medicare clearly forms a part of a secure retirement, but Medicare in its basic form is 35 years old.  The most obvious wrinkle on the face of Medicare is the lack of a Medicare prescription drug benefit, and that needs to be addressed.  In fact, it is overdue in being addressed.  No one designing a modern health program for seniors today would exclude prescription drugs.

In fact, the House acted during the last Congress on a prescription drug program.  We plan to act in this Congress.  The difficulty has been in getting the Senate to act, so we can together move a bill to the President's desk.

Given the realities of terrorism and the recession, I commend the President for not reducing the resources he proposed last year for prescription drugs and Medicare reform.  That $190 billion was placed on the table in a period of surplus.  The $190 billion in today's budget comes in a very clouded atmosphere of significant additional resource demands, and so I underscore: I commend the president for that effort.

All of our seniors and disabled citizens deserve a comprehensive prescription drug benefit in a modernized Medicare program.  The President's proposal to provide immediate relief to seniors through a prescription drug card is a good interim step.  I underscore “interim.”  It will lay the groundwork for Medicare to develop the infrastructure for a fully funded prescription drug benefit, and for seniors to learn how to use it.  It is a bridge to a more comprehensive drug benefit program, and I hope that bridge is of short duration.

Modernization of Medicare must also include a rationalization of how health care provider services are paid for.  Our government-run payment systems are fundamentally flawed, whether it is how we pay private health plans in Medicare or physicians serving our beneficiaries.

Mr. Secretary, you have been a strong leader on the issue of health and welfare, both now in your current capacity as secretary, and previously as governor of Wisconsin.  We look forward to working with you.  You have already made significant changes in the administrative structure.  I know you need additional assistance.  We do need to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, program.  That law has been a resounding success, and we need to move forward in this area as well.

The President's budget, I think, has started a constructive dialogue on many important issues.  We look forward to continuing the dialogue and hearing your testimony, but more importantly, we need to figure out how structurally to make the changes and how to finance the very real reforms that need to be made.  Nothing is more fundamental than providing prescription drugs for our seniors.

And now, prior to hearing from you, Mr. Secretary, I would ask the gentleman from New York, the ranking member, if he has any comments.