Political Quotes

“As a physician, I am deeply disappointed in the way we are legislating on health care. Here we are, on one hand, physicians are facing a 10 percent cut in reimbursement, which is going to deeply have an impact on access. Furthermore, a 5 percent cut coming up in January. On the other hand, we are going to cut $47 billion out of a Medicare program that is extremely valuable to rural America. I have a substantial number of citizens, constituents in my district, who depend on this program for access, not just coverage. Coverage is something on paper. Coverage gets you, hopefully, into the door, but not necessarily into the door of a physician's office where they can have a physician-patient relationship, a meaningful relationship that focuses on prevention and screening and not just treating everybody as if they are just a cog or an animal. We want to do good health care, and this is an irresponsible way to do this. This bill does not pay attention to access; it simply glosses over it. It pits seniors, seniors against physicians. As a physician, I deeply resent that.”