Political Quotes

“Well, this is, indeed, a rare event. It was an event really waiting to happen because, a year ago, our committee, Ways and Means, chaired by Dave Camp, alongside the Energy and Commerce and Senate Finance Committees, reached a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to move the physician reimbursement system to one based more on quality, not quantity. This helped pave the way for the package in front of us today, negotiated with the key help of the Speaker and our Leader. The SGR has been hanging over our heads for more than a decade. We have paid close to $170 billion in short-term patches. With each patch, it becomes harder to find offsets, putting seniors in our healthcare system increasingly at risk. This is being done--and I emphasize that-- while maintaining the basic structure of Medicare. Talk otherwise is mistaken. Our approach to paying for this reform is a reasonable one. We are paying for additional benefits, but not to dig out of the hole created by the flawed budget formula. This package includes a number of improvements across the healthcare landscape. It fully funds a 2-year extension of CHIP at the increased level of funding that we included in the Affordable Care Act. It permanently extends the qualifying individual program that pays Medicare premiums for low-income seniors.…”