mr. chairman , i rise in support of the proposals that seek to prohibit the use of funds in the bill to distribute the personal information of medicare and medicaid beneficiaries to private companies for marketing purposes . 
the americans who receive medicare and medicaid benefits already suffer from ailments that debilitate and weaken them from a health standpoint . 
this legislation should not be permitted to debilitate them from a fiscal standpoint either . 
according to data , more people were covered by medicare and medicaid in 2003 than in 2002 , while the percentage and number of people covered by their employers fell from 61.3 percent -- 175.3 million people -- to 60.4 percent -- 174 million people . 
mr. chairman , this is a lot of people whose personal information could be jeopardized by the haphazard distribution to the marketing community . 
the situation with choicepoint and others should provide more than adequate proof that information can be used to harm people and that it can be done rapidly . 
allowing funds to facilitate the free dissemination of personal information by the federal government only exacerbates the vulnerable nature of personal information databases . 
the medicaid and medicare databases were not created for the purpose of business development ; therefore , the information contained in these databases should be protected unless consent is obtained from the person described therein . 
for these reasons , mr. chairman , i support the gentleman 's amendment . 
