COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan, Chairman JAMES H. SCHEUER, New York JAMES J. FLORIO, New Jersey ANTHONY TOBY MOFFETT, Connecticut JIM SANTINI, Nevada EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama W. J. "BILLY" TAUZIN, Louisiana RALPH M. HALL, Texas JAMES T. BROYHILL, North Carolina EDWARD R. MADIGAN, Illinois WILLIAM E. DANNEMEYER, California THOMAS J. BLILEY, JR., Virginia ૬૬ BN26 11 Ap KF27 E5546 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1982 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIght and InveSTIGATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., in room 2322, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Albert Gore, Jr., presiding (Hon. John D. Dingell, chairman). Mr. GORE. The subcommittee will come to order. Chairman John Dingell is in an urgent meeting with the Secretary of Transportation because of the rail strike, which is affecting large areas of this country, as all here know, and he will be briefly delayed and will be with us shortly. At this point I would like to read his opening statement. The Committee on Energy and Commerce has legislative responsibility for health programs-the Public Health Service and the Health Care Financing Administration. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has a duty to review the programs under the jurisdiction of the committee, looking at the policies and the operations. This hearing marks one of the subcommittee's periodic inquiries into the operation of the Department of Health and Human Services. For many of our hearings we invite the administrators of individual programs, the scientists, and the professionals, but it is also necessary and very useful to hear from the chief policymaker. When the subcommittee wrote to Secretary Schweiker about this hearing, he was provided in advance with a list of 24 topics of interest to members of the subcommittee. Because we have the chief policymaker of the Department before the subcommittee for only 2 hours and cannot complete our questions on all of the matters of concern, we have selected a few topics for special attention. At the time that the Secretary was invited, none of us had any indication that the administration was considering a massive cut in medicare benefits. Over this past weekend, the press has reported that, in addition to earlier attempts to restrict social security, the administration is planning a means test for medicare. Millions of Americans have invested in the medicare program, and we have just amended the law so that Federal employees, as well, will be contributing for their own to medicare. People have put their money into the medicare fund so that when they turn 65 they will have the kind of benefits that protect them from poverty. (1) |