Lois Capps: “I thank my colleague for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I have long been a supporter of a permanent fix to the sustainable…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I have long been a supporter of a permanent fix to the sustainable growth rate, or SGR. The flawed SGR harms providers and consumers alike and keeps us from true innovation in the health care sector, but for too long, the conversation has ended with everyone recognizing a problem but no one willing to find a middle ground to fix it. {time} 0930 Instead, we lumber from patch to patch, kicking the can down the road with piecemeal delays or fixes here in Congress, such as we are doing today. These disagreements let the issue linger, causing more instability in our communities while the cost of a fix continues to rise. That is why I have been so proud to be part of crafting the bipartisan, bicameral SGR fix policy. This policy provides a positive payment update to our providers, pushes us toward a system rewarding quality and fixing the GPCI, ensuring that central coast providers and others will finally gain accurate Medicare reimbursement. But today, this bipartisan process is being derailed once again. By tying a delay of the individual mandate to this policy, the House majority has poisoned such a bipartisan process. Access to health care for more than 50 million seniors and persons with disabilities is a serious matter. These partisan games could very well end our Nation's best shot at amending a bad policy.…”