Burchett/ 6 Senator Hentschel

S.W._____

A BILL
To eliminate the age restriction and provide medicare for all United States residents..
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Unrestricted Medicare Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) The Social Security Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965, in
Independence, MO. It established Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, and Medicaid, a health
insurance program for the poor.
2) In 1965, the passage of the Social Security Act Amendments, popularly known as Medicare, resulted in a basic
program of hospital insurance for persons aged 65 and older, and a supplementary medical insurance program to aid
the elderly in paying doctor bills and other health care bills.
3) In 2005, more than half (56 percent) of Americans reported that they or someone else in their household had been
diagnosed with a chronic illness, such as heart disease, cancer, asthma, or diabetes. This group had a significantly
harder time accessing health care, specifically because of cost.
4) Seniors clearly prefer to build on the Medicare program with which they are familiar, and adults under age sixtyfive have a more favorable view of private plans.
5) In 2007, national health care expenditures in the United States totaled $2.2 trillion or 16% of its gross domestic
product, a 14% increase from 2000.3 This represents an average of more than $7,400 per person.
6) Personal health expenditures which include such services as physician visits, hospital care, dental care,
prescription drugs, and nursing home care accounted for 84% of national health care expenditures in 2007.
7) You may be eligible for Medicaid if you have limited income and are any of these: 65 or older, a child under 19,
pregnant, living with a disability, a parent or adult caring for a child, an adult without dependent children (in certain
states). or an eligible immigrant.
8) When you enroll, you can get the health care benefits you need, like: Doctor visits, hospital stays, long-term
services and supports, preventive care, including immunizations, mammograms, colonoscopies, and other needed
care, prenatal and maternity care, mental health care, necessary medications, and vision and dental care (for
children).
9) The changes that are already in place include: allowing children to stay on their parents health insurance until age
26; no lifetime limits on health coverage; and new insurance policies must provide preventive care without any form
of cost-sharing.
10) There are provisions in the law to help curb the soaring costs of Medicare, but savings will come from reining in
unreasonable payments to providers, taxing high-premium plans (beginning in the year 2018), cracking down on
fraud and waste, and encouraging patient-centered, coordinated care.
11)The Institute of Medicine estimates that over 18,000 Americans die each year from lack of health

insurance alone.
12)In addition, 60 million Americans had no health insurance at all, and as a result, many people lost their
homes, endured bankruptcy, and suffered other hardships trying to pay for treatment for their illness.
Among industrialized nations, the United States was an outlier in having no basic guarantee of health care
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Unrestricted Medicare Act of 2015 shall hereby eliminate the Medicare age restriction of sixty-five years in
order to provide Medicare coverage to all United States residents. All existing health care services, benefits, and
programs shall be available to all legal United States residents.
B) This bill shall be enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and shall be funded by
increasing the Income Tax by one percent.
C) The Unrestricted Medicare Act of 2015 shall be enacted on January 1st, 2016. There is no expiration date for this
bill.