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Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, 60 years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, of Minnesota, whose desk my hands sit on right now, traveled to Independence, MO. President Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. He chose that city for a reason. He wanted to make clear these programs delivered what their birthplace promises: independence, health, and security for millions of Americans.
Before that day 60 years ago, there was no comprehensive government health insurance in the United States. If you didn't get insurance through work, you were on your own. Before Medicare, no insurance company wanted to provide coverage to seniors. Most Americans without job-based coverage faced illnesses and injuries, knowing they would have to pay out of pocket, and millions, especially older Americans, kids, and low-income families, went without the care they needed. They risked their health and their financial security.
Today, over 110 million Americans, including more than 1 million people in my State, depend on Medicare and Medicaid. These programs cover everything from hospital visits to lifesaving prescriptions to long-term care that allow seniors to remain in their homes. These programs, along with Social Security, have driven poverty among seniors to record lows, but that promise is under a renewed threat.
My Republican colleagues have passed laws that have cut Medicaid and Medicare, which millions of Americans rely on. They have voted to cut healthcare by over $1 trillion to pay for a bunch of tax cuts for billionaires. These cuts will throw more than 15 million Americans off of healthcare and threaten the independence not just of our seniors but of kids, people with disabilities, rural families, and working families.
As you know, the Medicaid cuts were right there for all to see. The Medicare cuts came out of a trigger. Because they added so much to the debt at $4 trillion, it triggered an automatic Medicare cut of $500 billion. That socks rural hospitals right there, and we are already seeing the effects of the anticipation of that because rural hospitals can't wait a year. They have got to show the people who run their hospitals what is going to happen. If they think they can't make it because of these cuts and what is happening, we lose these rural hospitals, and, suddenly, moms who want to deliver babies have to drive 2 hours, and people who want to go to an emergency room have nowhere to go.
In my State, 170,000 people from all walks of life risk losing access to the care that keeps them healthy and self-sufficient. Cuts like these nationally could close over 300 rural hospitals, 200 health centers, and over 500 nursing homes. Families caring for kids with special needs, kids with disabilities, could be left without the support that allows them to thrive, and people once again will be forced to choose between putting food on the table and filling a prescription.
As my Republican colleagues attack these programs, I have heard from countless Minnesotans who are among the 71 million Americans who rely on Medicaid in particular. More than one in five in my State gets access to care through Medicaid, and for seniors in assisted living, it is one out of two.
When it comes to people who rely on Medicaid, one example is Lola, whose daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. A social worker advised Lola that her employer-based insurance may not cover the cancer treatments that her daughter needed and connected her with Medicaid. She said, ``Medicaid helped completely'' with the transfusions, the surgeries, the T-cell therapy, and ongoing care. Lola added: Using my own insurance would have caused delays, and ultimately I would have been, for my daughter, in a life-or-death situation without Medicaid.
Another is Robby, who, after years in adult foster care, now lives independently with a roommate because of Medicaid's disability waiver and community-based services.
For these Minnesotans, this isn't about politics. When they call our office, we don't ask if they are a Democrat or a Republican; we just help them. When they send us a letter with their stories and pleading for help, we just help them. It is about whether we as a country honor our promise that every American deserves independence, dignity, and security.
Medicare and Medicaid are overwhelmingly popular with Americans and overwhelmingly needed by Americans. It is about caring for one another. It is about ensuring that every American can live with peace of mind and have dignity--dignity--in their senior years and strengthening health and prosperity in every corner of our country.
On this 60th anniversary, we should be strengthening these lifelines, not dismantling them.
As a nation, we have already made progress--capping out-of-pocket drug costs with the last administration; passing my bill to empower Medicare to finally negotiate drug prices--if this administration will continue this program that already, for the first 10 drugs, saved billions of dollars; making healthcare affordable; saving families thousands of dollars on therapies and hospital stays for complex illnesses,
Yet, today, on this milestone anniversary, we are again called to defend the very promise that began in Independence, MO, 60 years ago.
To paraphrase Minnesota's Happy Warrior Hubert Humphrey, who was there with President Johnson when he served as Vice President after he was Senator from the great State of Minnesota--he once said this: The moral test of a government isn't just how it treats the young and healthy; it is also how it treats the sick, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
That is definitely true for government, and I believe it is a moral test for all Americans.
I urge my colleagues, let's protect the health and security that Medicare and Medicaid provide for Americans of all ages. Let's keep the spirit of Independence alive so every kid, every family, every person, no matter their story, can count on Medicare and Medicaid for generations to come.
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