Robert Berry: “Mr. Speaker, I agree, we should fix the physician fee schedule. We tried to fix it. We offered a pretty good one in the…”

“Mr. Speaker, I agree, we should fix the physician fee schedule. We tried to fix it. We offered a pretty good one in the bill that was passed in this body earlier this year. I can tell the Members this, this bill does not go far enough. Rural hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and home health agencies are all in trouble in rural America. Our rural health infrastructure is crumbling. We suffer from a lack of nurses, doctors, skilled medical professionals. We are losing the ability to provide health care to Medicare recipients because the reimbursement rates are so low, not only to the doctors but to the hospitals and the other providers. Rural hospitals in my district are struggling to keep their doors open and at the same time provide health care to our people. It is time that we face this problem, deal with it in a responsible way, and stop playing the games that are being played like we are doing here tonight. We just passed a bill yesterday that reduces the amount of money that is spent on road construction, which does not make any sense at all. If there is one thing we know that helps the economy, it is constructing highways. It gives us not only immediate jobs, but long-term benefits. We are playing all these games with the American people.”