Lois Capps: “the Medicare bill that we will vote on this week is a bad bill. It undercuts this critical program that has been…”

“the Medicare bill that we will vote on this week is a bad bill. It undercuts this critical program that has been provided health care to millions of seniors. It provides spotty coverage that will not help these seniors with their expensive medications. And it reneges on a promise that we have made to America's seniors by ending Medicare as we have known it. But I want to talk about a particularly objectionable provision in this bill that has not gotten much attention. The part that cuts funding for cancer care. The Medicare bill is supposed to make it easier for patients to get health care, but it will actually make it harder for cancer patients to get the care they need. Cancer is a scourge that has touched nearly every person and family in this country. Cancer patients and their loved ones have a very strong loyalty to the medical professionals, this whole team of oncology care givers who deliver what is so often brutal treatment. This is especially true of the often unsung heros of quality cancer care, oncology nurses. As a nurse and someone who lost a daughter to cancer, I have seen firsthand essential contributions made by these amazing men and women who monitor and support, deftly guide the delicate treatment regimen. But the House Medicare bill has a provision that will cut half a billion dollars from cancer care in America. Anyone who thinks you can take this much money away from cancer care and not endanger the quality is fooling themselves.”