Pete Stark

Medicare is one of our Nation's best programs, but it has always been a work in progress, and it needs ongoing fine-tuning and changing to keep it relevant.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 436, one more piece of Republican legislation that protects special interests at the expense of working with families. This is just another message in an attempt to…

Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) should present Congress with an opportunity to set aside our many differences and work together so that women and families across the country can lead safer, healthier, and happier lives…

The legislation we are considering today is quite possibly the moral low-point of this House Republican Majority. Not only does it negate a law that was agreed to just last year to cut the deficit, it makes unconscionable cuts to safety…

Because it is the law, and it takes enforcement.

Basically Republicans want to take away Medicare's guaranteed benefits and replace it with a voucher and put the insurance companies back in charge.

I can count on maybe one hand the Democrats who support vouchers or similar proposals.

I am going to go on record again making clear the strong opposition that Democrats have to the House Republican proposal.

I happen to be a fan of his bill to get rid of this idea that if a physician doesn't take Medicare, they are out of the system for 2 years.

The 75-year target doesn't bother me much, but I will come back and ask Mr. Herger, he will find out what it is like.

If we had vouchers, or whatever you want to call premium support things, the Medicare would stop being a defined benefit plan and become a defined contribution plan, would it not?

The CBO has said it would lead to an increase in overall national health spending as seniors and people with disabilities are moved into less efficient, more costly private plans.

I think it is the first hearing that Republicans have held in the Ways and Means Committee to advance their plan to end the Medicare as we know it.

You may not like it, but it doesn't.

It is apparent to me in this hearing from the testimony presented today that the Democrats' health care law is unconstitutional and will rob Americans of their current health plan and further hinder economic growth.

First, you could pay the penalty and remain uninsured.

I want to thank Mr. Waxman for yielding to me at this time. I rise in opposition to H.R. 5, brought to the floor by my Republican colleagues. It does two things. It repeals IPAB as created in the Affordable Care Act, and it enacts a…

My good friend from California, the Ranking Member, Mr. Stark, characterized IPAB as a 'mindless rate-cutting machine that sets up for unsustainable cuts that would endanger the health of American seniors and people with disabilities.'

I am proud of what we have done with the Affordable Care Act.

I see no reason why Congress should hand that authority over to the executive branch.

I oppose IPAB for reasons different, perhaps, from my other colleagues.

I still believe that the other side of the aisle would like to end Medicare.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today to try and explore how the private sector payers are rewarding physicians who deliver high-quality and efficient care.

We are more than a decade away into the debacle known as SGR reform.

We keep avoiding the topic of Sustainable Growth Rate formulas in favor of the easier conversations about delivery system reforms.