Political Quotes

“Yes. Madam President, my colleague is exactly correct, and the math is correct as well. It is very disappointing to me because most of the doctors with whom I have spoken are very afraid of this legislation. They are afraid of what it will do in their practices in the way they will be able to deal with their patients. They are also afraid because they can see this continued downward pressure on reimbursements they receive. Frankly, a lot of them are saying: We are not going to be able to take Medicare patients in the future. In my own State of Arizona, in fact, the Mayo Clinic has already announced that at two or three of its facilities, it is not going to take new Medicare patients. So that is one of the things that should be fixed in the health care bill. It is not fixed. It disappoints me that even though the medical association has urged they take out a very pernicious amendment that deals with specialty hospitals--basically, it cuts specialty hospitals off in the future; and the AMA has fought very hard to allow specialty hospitals to exist, but that is not going to get fixed in this bill--even though they have sought to be excluded from the Medicare cuts that are in the Medicare Commission here--that is supposedly going to save $250 billion or so; that has not been fixed--and even though they need to have the basic reimbursement section, the so-called SGR, fixed--and as my colleague has just pointed out, it is not fixed in the legislation--what is disappointing to me is…”