Political Quotes

“Let me describe briefly the challenge before us. This bill is very disappointing. The three committees have worked on a bipartisan basis to put together a bill that would address once and for all SGR and would reform the payment system. Indeed, it would transform this bill that we worked on on a bipartisan basis--the physician payment system--into one that is more acceptable for high quality care, rewards value, and provides needed stability for providers and beneficiaries. The bill has a much larger cost than this patch, though patches themselves are expensive. In response to the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I want to make a few comments. There has been no serious discussion all of these weeks about how we would pay for the permanent fix. There has been a dereliction of responsibility. Also, what has happened here is this patch is a product that hasn't gone through the legislative process. Instead, it is a complex $20 billion bill with no public hearing, no committee hearings, and no regular order. The draft of the bill became publicly available at midnight Tuesday, and there were flaws, so it was refiled, and we got this bill just 24 hours ago. This present legislation contains a completely new, unvetted lab payment system. It undermines delivery system reforms for dialysis patients.…”