On the recordJuly 10, 2012
As a physician with over 30 years clinical experience taking care of patients as a cardiac surgeon, I'm certainly familiar with the problems in our health care system, and there's no denying we need to do substantive reforms. But, Mr. Speaker, this law has not created the kind of reforms that are needed for our health care system. Let's talk about seniors for a moment. This law cuts over $500 billion out of the Medicare program. It's going to hurt seniors. I know this from my own personal experience having dealt with seniors and seniors' health care. We have not fixed the mismatch between cost and reimbursement. This is leading to accelerating access problems for seniors and others to good, high-quality health care and a good doctor- patient relationship. It's going to force seniors to travel further, to wait longer, depriving them of regular access to a physician that they know and trust. We haven't solved the problem of portability. Portability is something Americans cared about--owning your own health insurance and carrying it wherever you go. We have ways of dealing with that. That has not been solved with this law. Taxes, nearly $800 billion now in new taxes, and the total keeps growing. Twenty-one new taxes on every aspect of the American economy. It's no wonder this economy is in the doldrums. It's no wonder we have 41 quarters of unemployment exceeding 8 percent. This is unacceptable. Another 800,000 jobs at risk, as my colleagues mentioned earlier.…
