Lynn Jenkins: “I thank the chairman for yielding. The President's health care law is chock full of pitfalls, tax increases, government…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding. The President's health care law is chock full of pitfalls, tax increases, government overreaches, and newly created bureaucracies. But perhaps the most outrageous and dangerous manifestation is the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This board of 15 arbitrarily appointed bureaucrats is charged with slashing Medicare reimbursement rates, which will drastically impact the medicine and procedures available to our seniors. The IPAB has no mandate to improve patient care. Its mandate is to meet a budget, and it may ultimately lead to the rationing of care for our senior citizens. The IPAB gives these bureaucrats unprecedented power with no accountability, no judicial review, and no requirement for transparency. The simple fact is that the American people don't want and certainly don't need bureaucrats coming between us and our doctors. Today we ask for the repeal of the IPAB, but we will also make up for any amount of lost savings this absurd board would have been able to find by strengthening our health care system with honest and straightforward medical liability reform. Frivolous lawsuits have caused malpractice insurance rates to skyrocket. As a result, the price of health care for patients has followed the same trajectory, and we've seen dramatic health care access issues for our rural communities.…”