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YOUR THOUGHTS, MR. SECRETARY, ON
WHAT TYPE OF PACKAGE WOULD BE
AGREEABLE TO THE ADMINISTRATION.

FINALLY, I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO SPEND SOME TIME ON OUR EXISTING MEDICARE PROGRAM. ONCE AGAIN, THE ADMINISTRATION IS PROPOSING HEFTY MEDICARE CUTS, COUPLED WITH RAPID INCREASES IN THE PART B PREMIUM. CONSIDERING THE STUDY THAT CHAIRMAN ROYBAL WILL RELEASE TODAY, IT APPEARS TO ME THAT MANY OF OUR ELDERLY ARE SIMPLY REACHING THE OUTER LIMITS OF WHAT THEY CAN AFFORD TO SPEND ON OUT OF POCKET HEALTH CARE COSTS. THE PROPOSALS IN THE ADMINISTRATION'S

BUDGET WOULD NO DOUBT EVEN FUR

THER INCREASE THE OUT OF POCKET BUR

DEN ON OUR NATION'S ELDERLY, AND I

LOOK FORWARD TO DISCUSSING WITH

YOU, MR. SECRETARY, WHAT STEPS THE ADMINISTRATION WILL TAKE TO LIMIT THESE COSTS.

STATEMENT BY THE HONORABLE BEN BLAZ

MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE TERRITORY OF GUAM

BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON AGING

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 5, 1990

Chairman Roybal, I commend you for holding this important hearing with the distinguished witness, Secretary Louis Sullivan, to address the impact of federal health policy on vulnerable Americans, especially the poor and the elderly.

With the aging of America, the time has come to address the health and long-term care problems of both today's and tomorrow's elderly. I believe that we should make greater investment in research and treatment for diseases prevalent among the elderly and develop comprehensive policies for preventive care, home care and long-term care for the elderly.

I am particularly impressed with Secretary Sullivan, who brings fresh air to the plight and problem of minorities and the elderly population. I commend you, Secretary Sullivan, for making a major

initiative

the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) outreach program by targeting the communities where needy senior citizens reside.

On Guam you do not have to try very hard to reach the eligible elderly for the program because they are well aware of what it can do for them. I firmly believe that they have just as much right

to receive the benefits as their neighbors in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, only forty miles away in the Western Pacific.

The irony is that in spite of repeated attempts to extend SSI benefits to Guam, they have not yet been granted to us. I cannot think of a more glaring example of federal insensitiv.

inconsistency than the reluctance of the U.S. government tc

d

nt

this benefit to all its citizens. The people of Northern Marianas managed to obtain these benefits as a result of their negotiated covenant. We are attempting to do likewise by including similar language in our Guam Commonwealth Bill, H.R. 98.

The federal government raised an objection to the extention of the benefits to Guam in the 1989 federal interagency task force report on the Commonwealth Bill. In that report the federal government claimed that including Guam in the program would be "culturally disruptive." This objection is preposterous.

Real cultural disruption on Guam occurred when the Japanese occupied the territory during World War II the largest U.S. territory so occupied when the Chamorro people were brutally treated.

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That's cultural disruption.

Proportionally, more

Guamanians died in the Korean war than any other community in the U.S. That's cultural disruption. There are 71 Guamanian names engraved on the Vietnam War Memorial, proportionally more than for

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please, I beg you, disrupt us by treating us as equals.

It is time for the U.S. to rectify the inequity imposed on the people ci Quam and treat these loyal Americans as first-class citizens like those in the rest of the nation. The poor elder, disabled and the blind on Guam will truly know that the federal government cares about their health and well-being just as much as for that of their fellow citizens in other parts of the country when the SSI benefits are extended to Guam.

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