Leonard L. Boswell: “Today I can support this bill with enthusiasm. I was very sorry the last time we discussed it I could not, and I want to…”

“Today I can support this bill with enthusiasm. I was very sorry the last time we discussed it I could not, and I want to thank the conference committee for their hard work. It kind of signals a win to me for a concern that I have had for my State of Iowa in the area of Medicare reimbursements rates. In May the Committee on Rules made an exception and put into this supplemental bill what I thought was an unfair fix for rates for a selected few and leave out many. I appreciate this. It has actually drawn attention to this ploy and helped to shed additional light on the discriminatory formulas and the adverse consequences for seniors, hospitals and health care professionals across Iowa and other similarly situated areas. Although our health care professionals are doing a great job with less, the fact remains, as we see here, and I will show you a chart one more time in a moment, that there are places in the country where Medicare patients are getting eyeglasses and they are getting prescriptions. In fact, it is a double of what we were getting in Iowa, the amount.”