Political Quotes

“My colleague from New Jersey made a point earlier that he wasn't sure that many people on this side have read the bill. I have read the bill, and some things are quite apparent to me. One, there is a loss of freedom. Thou shalt buy insurance or else thou shalt pay a penalty. You shall provide insurance to your employees or thou shalt pay a penalty. But I think the point that Mr. Tiahrt made is the, if you will, the ultimate sacrifice of freedom. As one said, The power to tax is the power to destroy. Well, clearly as we expand Medicaid, we are going to ultimately shift taxes both to the Federal taxpayer and to the State taxpayer. Now this plan will increase Medicaid to 133 percent of the Federal poverty level. That has tremendous implications. One implication, for example, is that the physicians will be paid extremely poorly, so poorly that they won't be able to see the patients. I looked up in New Jersey, for example, Medicaid only pays 37 percent of Medicare rates to physicians to see the patient. They only pay 37 percent. Now as it turns out, that's below a physician's cost. Physicians would like to see the patients. It's too low of a reimbursement. There was just an article in the New York Times, and the New York Times held up an example of a woman from Michigan on Medicaid who could not get treatment for her cancer because the Medicaid reimbursement was so low that she was unable to find a physician who could afford to treat her. I've read the bill.…”