FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 3, 1997
No. HL-1
Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman, Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Medicare provisions in the President's budget. The hearing will take place on Thursday, February 13, 1997, in the main Committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be heard from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include Dr. Bruce Vladeck, Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, budget experts, and actuaries. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND:
Last year, the Medicare Trustees found that the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund would become insolvent by the year 2001. More recently, the Congressional Budget Office stated that for the Medicare HI trust fund to achieve full solvency beyond 10 years, Medicare's annual rate of growth must be slowed from 7.7 to 3.4 percent. Administration officials have publicly stated that the President's fiscal year 1998 budget would reduce Medicare spending by $100 billion from 1998 through 2002. Included in the proposal is a shift of a portion of home health expenditures from the HI trust fund to the Supplemental Medical Insurance trust fund, financed out of general revenues. This hearing will review the Medicare provisions included in the President's fiscal year 1998 budget, and begin to examine its impact on seniors, health care providers, health plans, and taxpayers.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Thomas stated: "We are anxious to review the specific details of the President's proposal to achieve future solvency of the Medicare program. While the President's proposal appears to succeed in cutting costs, it may not make some of the structural changes to Medicare that would provide powerful market incentives to providers and health plans to improve quality and reduce costs, in addition to extending the solvency of the HI trust fund."
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
This hearing will focus on the Medicare proposals included in the President's fiscal year 1998 budget and their impact on the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit at least six (6) copies of their statement and a 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or ASCII format, with their address and date of hearing noted, by the close of business, Thursday, February 27, 1997, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Health office, room 1136 Longworth House Office Building, at least one hour before the hearing begins.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be typed in single space on legal-size paper and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. At the same time written statements are submitted to the Committee, witnesses are now requested to submit their statements on a 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or ASCII format.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, full address, a telephone number where the witness or the designated representative may be reached and a topical outline or summary of the comments and recommendations in the full statement. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.