Political Quotes

“I wanted to give a report to my colleagues on the status of the Medicare Beneficiary Freedom To Contract Act, the so-called Medicare private contracting issue, which has been before both the Senate and House for several weeks now following the adoption of the Balanced Budget Act, which contained in it a provision which makes it much more difficult for physicians to serve patients who want to contract outside of Medicare. Let me briefly tell you what the problem is, the legislative status, and the resolution--at least as of now--that we have been able to accomplish. The issue is whether or not physicians can serve both Medicare patients and people under private contracts who are 65 years of age. Once a person turns 65, of course, they are eligible for Medicare, and most of the services they can obtain are paid for by Medicare. But occasionally, either there is a service that is not covered by Medicare, or even sometimes services that are covered by Medicare that a patient would prefer to obtain from a physician outside of the Medicare Program. For example, a constituent of mine had a condition that required the aid of a specialist in her small community. There were none available, except one person who was no longer taking Medicare patients. By the way, Mr. President, this is a common situation, because Medicare, especially for specialists, does not reimburse even up to their level of costs.”