Joel Hefley: “It is time to take a serious look at the problems we have with Medicare. Medicare started for the right reasons; there…”

“It is time to take a serious look at the problems we have with Medicare. Medicare started for the right reasons; there is no question about that, and I do not think we can argue with that. We did not want the elderly going without the ability to have the proper health care. We all realize it is not perfect and we need to do something about the prescription drug portion of it. But there is a bigger problem with Medicare, and that is the problem of access. Doctors are dropping out across this country in droves. They are dropping out because the compensation is too low, and we proposed this year to make it even lower. They are dropping out because there is a hassle factor of feeling that if they make a little clerical error, that they might be drawn in by the police and pulled before the courts. I had a woman come to me in a town meeting the other day that said she brought her mother from Missouri to Colorado, and they had gone to 128 doctors trying to find care for her mother and none of them would take new Medicare patients. If we do not have access, we do not have a program. Congress must stop ignoring this problem. It is time for action.”