Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to stand here today and introduce the Medicare Common Access Card Act of 2011 with my colleague from Oregon, Senator Ron Wyden. Every year, at least $60 billion in the Medicare program is attributed to waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare program. One of the fundamental steps Congress can take to address this is to upgrade the beneficiary's Medicare card using secure smart card technology, similar to the one already used for Department of Defense personnel. Verifying identity through a secure smart card will protect a beneficiary's personal information, prevent fraud among beneficiaries and providers, and legitimize Medicare claims. The Department of Defense has issued over 20 million secure smart cards as their ``Common Access Card,'' CAC, to authenticate and verify users for access to programs and facilities. To date, DoD reports that not a single Common Access Card has been counterfeited. We cannot stop or prevent fraud in the system until we find a way to know and verify who is authorized to provide and receive benefits. The Medicare Common Access Card Act of 2011 builds on the success of the DoD CAC card to establish a program that simply and securely verifies the identity of both Medicare beneficiaries and providers. By implementing well-established Common Access Card technology to protect the Medicare program, we can save U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars while securing the privacy of America's seniors.…”