Political Quotes

“first I wish to address legislation that passed the Senate earlier this evening. The sustainable growth rate is such an important issue to the people from the State of Kansas. I come from a State in which senior citizens are a very prevalent portion of our population, and access to health care is so dependent upon whether Medicare reimburses a physician, a hospital, a home health care agency or a nursing home in an adequate amount. I fear that in the absence of that adequate Medicare reimbursement we will see a lot fewer doctors, and hospital doors will close. I have been an advocate of and in fact I never voted to create the sustainable growth rate, and I suppose I should explain what that is. In the broadest of terms it means there is a formula that ultimately reduces the reimbursement a physician receives under Medicare. It has become a very dramatic issue. This year I believe it is around a 24 percent reduction that will occur April 1, tomorrow, if the sustainable growth rate formula is not altered. The reality is that Congress has altered that formula to avoid those reductions, because we know when a health care provider is not compensated in a way that covers the cost of providing the service, most likely we are going to have fewer health care providers.…”