On the recordFebruary 2, 2012
I thank the gentleman. I will just briefly respond to that. The point I would like to make on that very question is that coverage is not the same thing as access. There are countries around the world that have 100 percent coverage, yet they have no access to care. And I'm not just talking about communist or socialist countries. Look at Canada today. It takes a year to get a CT scan; but yet everybody's covered. So that's the fine point that we need to understand and take away. I will also add in response to the gentleman just a moment ago talking about the Independent Payment Advisory Board is that it will have more power than Congress itself. It will take a two-thirds vote from both bodies to overturn their decisions, and I don't think that Americans are ready to put all of that power in the hands of 15 bureaucrats who may or may not be physicians.
