Political Quotes

“yesterday I introduced legislation to repeal yet another expensive and burdensome Federal mandate placed upon American Business. My legislation would repeal section 13581 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which established the Medicare/Medicaid data bank. This onerous provision--which took effect January 1 of this year-- requires employers who provide health care coverage to send detailed information on current and past employees to a central data bank. This information includes names, social security numbers, health care plans and period of coverage, and failure to comply with the requirement would result in a substantial fine. In my view, this new mandate actually penalizes employers who provide health care, which hardly seems logical. No funding was provided in the bill for either employers or the health care financing administration to implement this difficult and expensive project. This databank is just another unfunded mandate placed on the backs of those who provide America's jobs. HCFA cannot administer the data bank and working America cannot afford it. I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring H.R. 4095.”