Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise today to offer amendment No. 5 included in the en bloc, to increase our investment in the health workforce and to decrease spending for the Office of the Secretary of HHS, who has driven this historic health workforce shortage. In December of 2020, Congress passed the No Surprises Act, which was the result of a yearslong effort to ban surprise medical bills in a way that both takes the patient out of the middle and sets up a fair process for the provider and payer to negotiate the resulting bill. Unfortunately, the administration has implemented the policy in such a way that has tilted the scales in favor of the big insurance companies at every possible turn. Historically, Medicare has reimbursed physicians for their services at a lower rate than private insurance, which is why many providers don't even accept Medicare. In fact, 42 percent of psychiatrists don't accept Medicare patients. Most providers rely on private insurance to keep their practices open. Now, due to the botched implementation of the No Surprises Act, private insurance companies are paying the same or less than Medicare, which, as we unfortunately predicted, is forcing doctors to close their practices and decreases access to patient care. Someone told me a long time ago, if you are losing money on every patient, you can't make up for it on volume. The fact of the matter is that the Secretary is not enforcing the No Surprises Act as written.…”