Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Wyden for his leadership in fixing this reimbursement structure under Medicare. I thank Senator Blunt and Senator Stabenow for their leadership on the mental health demonstration program that is in this--whatever bill we pass it will be in--because it is absolutely essential we address the growing problems in our community health networks. So I thank both of them for their bipartisan leadership. The current way we reimburse physicians under Medicare is broken. The SGR system has been broken since it was passed in 1997 as part of the Balanced Budget Act. We have had 16 temporary patches to the SGR system, and it has created uncertainty not just among the medical community as to what the reimbursement rate will be for Medicare patients, but it has caused uncertainty among Medicare patients as to whether they know their doctor will be there to treat them for their illnesses. If we don't fix the problem and let it go off the cliff, we will see a 24-percent cut in reimbursements to physicians under Medicare. That is not sustainable. As we know, it would affect access for our seniors and the disabled to their doctors. We have to fix this problem. It expires today, March 31. So we have to take action. We have two choices. One is we could take advantage of the opportunity to not just make sure we don't go off the cliff but to actually fix the problem.…”