Gus Bilirakis: “Mr. Speaker, the gentleman makes a very good case for rural health care, and I commend him for that and because we have…”

“Mr. Speaker, the gentleman makes a very good case for rural health care, and I commend him for that and because we have heard the same case made time and time again, and this is why we have provided an approximately $25 billion increase in payments to rural providers. Before I go into that, I would advise the gentleman through the Chair, if I may, that I certainly agree with him regarding wellness, preventive health care and whatnot, and for something like 60 years or 30 years after Medicare was devised, we did not have, in Medicare, provisions for preventive health care. And it was not until a few years ago, in the 1990s, in the late 1990s, when finally a group of us got together on a bipartisan basis and finally for the first time put some preventive health care coverage reimbursement, if you will, in order to cover those areas. In the House bill, in the House bill, the gentleman has not referred to this, we have a provision to the effect that when a person is about to go under Medicare, there is a reimbursement coverage.”