‘The McCain Amendment tells the Committees: Don’t cut hospitals, Don’t cut hospice, Don’t cut home health, Don’t cut Medicare Advantage. It would allow us to focus our efforts instead on the prevention of waste, fraud, and abuse, which we know to be rampant in this program. It would ensure that we’re not cutting one government program just to create a new one’

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

“The Senate is now engaged in a monumental debate over the future of health care in America. On the one side are the proponents of a 2,074-page scheme that would expand the reach of government deeper into our lives; raise taxes; increase health care premiums; and cut Medicare for seniors. On the other side are the American people, who strongly oppose this plan.

“Americans support reform. But this isn’t the reform they were asking for. And it’s not the reform they were told they could expect. In fact, it’s pretty clear by now that the American people were sold a bill of goods when the administration and its allies in Congress said that their health care plan would lower costs and help the economy. Because the plan they’ve produced won’t do either.

“So the debate is no longer about improving care by reducing costs. We’re past that. This plan will raise costs on American families. And it will make an already-struggling economy worse. The only question now is how we got to a point where we’re actually considering spending trillions of dollars on a brand new government entitlement at a time when more than one in ten working Americans is looking for a job and when our debts and deficits are well past the tipping point.

“For many, the answer to that question is clear. We know that some in Washington have wanted government-run health care for years. And it’s hard to escape the conclusion that these same people saw the current economic crisis as their moment. Earlier this year, some in the administration said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Americans are hoping this bill isn’t what they meant. But they’re concerned it is.

“Americans know this bill will make our economic problems worse, not better — without even addressing the serious health care problems we face. And they’d be right. That’s why they want us to start over and accomplish the real mission of lowering costs. And that’s precisely what the McCain Amendment would allow us to do.

“The McCain Amendment would send this bill back for a rewrite. It would send it back to the Finance Committee with instructions to give us a new bill that doesn’t include half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare — that doesn’t pay for the bill on the backs of seniors.

“Here’s a program that’s already struggling, a program that needs help. Yet in order to finance their vision of reform, our friends on the other side want to use Medicare as a piggy bank to create an all-new government program that’s bound to have the same problems. As written, their bill would cut nearly half a trillion dollars from this vital program – not to make it stronger – but to fund more government spending. And in the process, millions of seniors would necessarily see a loss in benefits.

“The McCain Amendment wouldn’t let it happen. The McCain Amendment tells the Committees: Don’t cut hospitals, Don’t cut hospice, Don’t cut home health, Don’t cut Medicare Advantage. It would allow us to focus our efforts instead on the prevention of waste, fraud, and abuse, which we know to be rampant in this program. It would ensure that we’re not cutting one government program just to create a new one.

“That’s what a vote in favor of the McCain Amendment would be. It would be a vote to help preserve Medicare, not weaken it. And that’s the message America’s seniors want to hear in this health care debate — that improving health care in America doesn’t have to come at their expense.

“Some might argue that they need to cut Medicare to create a new government program. That’s their call. But it’s not the call Americans are asking us to make. The American people want us to start over from the beginning and craft a bill that they can support.

“Then we could end junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up costs—something the Democrats didn’t find any room for in their 2,074-page bill. Then we could encourage healthy choices like prevention and wellness programs — something the Democrats couldn’t seem to squeeze into their 2,074-page bill.

“Then we could lower costs by letting consumers buy coverage across state lines—something the Democrat bill writers overlooked in their 2,074-page bill. Then we could address rampant waste, fraud, and abuse — something our friends didn’t think was important enough to seriously address in their 2,074 page bill.

“The McCain Amendment would allow us to vote with seniors. It would allow us to vote with the American people. It would allow us to start over and get it right.”

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