Phil Gingrey: “Dear Mr. Speaker, the American Medical Association is proud to support the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization…”

“Dear Mr. Speaker, the American Medical Association is proud to support the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003 conference report. Congress listened to America's patients and the physicians who serve them. The AMA gave Congress a set of principles for a sound prescription drug policy. We asked that the pharmaceutical drug benefit be fully funded as a separate new part of the Medicare program and provide for adequate accounting so that drug program expenditures can be tracked separately from all other expenditures. We asked that it be targeted to reduce hardship for those with low incomes and those with catastrophic costs and that patients be offered a choice of insurance options. The conference report meets all of these requirements. We asked for help with the drastic 4.5 percent physician payment cuts that physicians and other health care providers will face beginning in less than 2 months. We said that cuts in Medicare payments jeopardize access to medical care not only for seniors but also for military retirees and their dependents. The conference report provides a 2-year increase in payments for 2004 and 2005 of at least 1.5 percent each year, not, Mr. Speaker, a 4.5 percent cut.”