Melvin Watt: “for the last several years, since the passage of the Balanced Budget Act, all health care providers who provide medical…”

“for the last several years, since the passage of the Balanced Budget Act, all health care providers who provide medical services under Medicare have been suffering, and we have been making efforts to try to address that problem. Unfortunately, the bill that is being brought to the floor today will give 47 percent of the benefits of the bill to HMOs who provide only 15 to 16 percent of the health care coverage for Medicare recipients. In the process, it shortchanges the other health care providers, such as hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, hospices and, more importantly, beneficiaries under Medicare. Additionally, this bill would break faith with the commitments that we made during the census that we would keep all information from the census private. We made a commitment. We went out and told people that their information would be private. Now the same people who said that the information would not be revealed are here offering a bill to reveal the information. What a reversal of roles here. We should oppose this bill, sustain the President's veto, and get a real bill for the American people.”