Political Quotes

“I appreciate the opportunity to be on the floor today, especially with the Senator from Wyoming, a doctor who is such an expert on the topic of really not just the moment, not just the day, but the topic of what our country faces. I will say that I do spend a lot of time in hospitals across our State talking to health care providers, talking to patients, doctors, to administrators, trustees. In fact, there are 128 hospitals in our State. I have visited all of them, and there is genuine concern about the future of the ability for health care to be delivered in communities across our State. And you add to that the physician and other health care provider community, and this health care reform act is creating significant challenges. My interest in public service started a long time ago with the belief that we live our lives in rural America, in my State of Kansas, in a pretty special way. When I came to Congress, it became clear to me that if our communities were going to have a future, it was dependent upon the ability to deliver health care close to home. And those rural communities across our Nation often have high proportions of senior citizen populations where Medicare is the primary determining factor of whether they can access health care. When the affordable care act was passed, many promises were made, but one of the things that was told to the American people--or at least the attempt was made to sell to the American people--was that there would be greater access.…”