Bill Cassidy

If you have to take a 2 percent across-the-board cut, why are they going to cut the programs that would save you $7.90 per dollar spent?

The 113th Congress has a tremendous opportunity and obligation to finally eliminate the SGR payment regime.

I introduced the Energy Consumers Relief Act to provide greater relief and transparency about the costs and jobs impact of EPA regulations

I will point out that New York pays physicians less well than does Louisiana and Texas, and only 60 percent of physicians in New York accept Medicaid.

First, let us just give some reality to some of the quotes regarding Medicaid expansion improving health care.

I tell you, I like Mr. Smith's line. It is not a percentage, it is the dollar amount, and when you are at 140 percent of Federal poverty, $2,000 might as well be $50,000.

Do we really think that family at 140 percent of Federal poverty can afford that $2,000 deductible?

If I was a big blue State, I would be all for this expansion, because according to Kaiser Family Foundation, you are going to save $500 million over 10 years.

The only thing I have heard about this bill is that premiums have gone by $2,500 since it was passed.

It is hard to keep a straight face when Mr. Waxman speaks about access to affordable care.

I actually am a doctor who Tuesday and Monday will be in a safety-net hospital for the uninsured or the poorly insured, which includes Medicaid.

I don't see the value for the American worker, and I would love to discuss today how all this was determined.

I have multiple concerns about how this is being implemented but I will say it is principally today about how this is going to affect the average American family.

The public trust is not being met by your actions.

I know if you continue to have the same inputs, you should expect the same output.

I am supposed to be providing oversight for the American taxpayer, who, if she knew what was going on, would just be furious.

I thank the gentleman. One thing I am struck by--and I'd like to bring Mrs. Lummis in-- oftentimes it is, when folks say, Wait a second, it's Medicaid and the government will pay for it, or the State should enroll because the Federal…

I'll say, just out of pride of authorship, there's another alternative, a Republican Medicaid proposal, one that I and others are sponsoring, and it does, if you will, similar to the block grant, it readjusts as your population changes…

Reclaiming my time, if you could elaborate. We know that under the President's health care proposal, Medicaid--a program which right now is driving Federal indebtedness and which is threatening to bankrupt States, despite that was greatly…

I think the point being made is that not only will the safety net become tattered in and of itself, but, rather, even though tattered, it will destroy our ability to finance these other governmental functions.

So the concern regarding a program which becomes, again, too stretched, too unfocused is that it becomes ineffective at its original mission. Dr. Harris, I can leave this one or go to the next one.

If the gentlelady will yield, I'd like to bring in Dr. Harris, who is an anesthesiologist from Maryland, the Eastern Shore. You just mentioned how Medicaid, as it attempts to expand and be all things to all people, becomes stressed and in…

So just to emphasize, Medicaid is an important safety net program for those folks without means. It was traditionally designed to take care of the blind and the disabled, the elderly and long-term care, and then oftentimes focused upon…

Federal and State Medicaid spending in billions of 2010 dollars by 2009. It's down here, the year. So 1993, 2009, going out to 2081. And so here is about $400 billion. This is combined Federal and State spending. By 2017, this rises to…

It is a part of our system to allow people into court and into the ITC at a very low threshold.