Political Quotes

“I rise in strong opposition to the Kasich substitute. This substitute is bad medicine for our health care programs. It cuts Medicare, it cuts biomedical research, it cuts immunizations, it cuts substance abuse treatment, it cuts women's health initiatives. The substitute is designed, I want the Members to understand, to embarrass the President of the United States by enacting in this budget the Michel alternative to the health care proposal that the President has submitted to us. It would do that by putting in this bill the so-called Michel substitute, even though the bill has never been referred to the Committee on the Budget and has not yet been reported out of the committees that have jurisdiction. However, this substitute does more than try to trick us into a health care proposal that does not provide universal coverage. The substitute would shift an additional $30 billion in out-of-pocket costs onto Medicare beneficiaries over the next 5 years. It would cut Medicare payments to teaching hospitals by $13.5 billion over the next 5 years. The Kasich substitute would propose almost $30 billion in new out-of-pocket costs on Medicare beneficiaries, and would do this by imposing coinsurance requirements for home health care and clinical lab services.”