today I rise to speak on the important occasion of Women's History Month. Since 1987, the month of March has been dedicated not only to remembering and appreciating the distinguished accomplishments of women, but also to commending their…

You are absolutely right, it will be the first order of business when this bill is finished if we miss the opportunity to fix it in this bill and fix it for 3 years and actually fix it in a way that it is paid for.

Then you could be exposed to a fine because a government bureaucrat has determined that the coverage, the health care coverage you bought, that you were given, is not sufficient enough to meet the minimal essential coverage this bill…

If I may add to Dr. Coburn's comments and say, when you double the size of the Medicaid population, you are already forcing more doctors to say: I am not going to see Medicaid patients. But you are changing the payer mix. Every provider…

I have learned throughout this whole process to never try to figure out what promises have been made. But I know the promise we have made to physicians--to reimburse them fairly for the services they provide--and anything less than that…

I wish to reiterate the fact that this should be part of health care reform. It is not. It is shocking that we would have something of this magnitude that is not fixed in a reform bill. We have an opportunity in a bill that has now come…

my amendment is quite simple. In the rush to finish this bill, there were some errors. One of the errors was clarifying the status of some veterans programs, specifically the TRICARE program, the VA spina bifida program--that is the…

Because the Senator from New Hampshire remembers this body did pass a bill that partially paid for an extension of this through September of this year. The problem was, when they passed the health care bill, they used the pay-fors out of…

If I could add, it also adds some insight into how many people will choose not to have insurance and make themselves susceptible to the fine. The anticipation is the IRS is going to chase a lot of people to recover the fine. I think we…

Let me add, if I may, to my good friend, Senator Gregg, even though some would choose not to have coverage and pay the fine, we have an emergency room system that is obligated to see those individuals when they have traumatic care. For…

I will also offer an amendment tonight, and the purpose is very clear: it is to protect the health care of our Nation's servicemembers, veterans, and their widows, orphans, and dependents. The problem is, since the debate on health care…

Do you believe that the Secretary's blueprint provides the flexibility as time goes on for us to change the programs to reflect any changes in population?