Bill Pascrell

This year's June MedPAC, Director Miller, reaffirmed--in my mind, anyway--that we don't have to scrap the current system in order to save Medicare.

the life of Medicare has been extended about eight years because of the ACA

if it doesn't provide adequate financial assistance for lower income beneficiaries, benefit redesign puts these beneficiaries in a very, very vulnerable financial situation

Health care reform is already moving Medicare, I think, in a new direction.

Instead of sour grapes and instead of burying our heads in the sand, we said we only have one country here.

Now here is the real headache. Let me tell you what the real headache is. You are sitting over there and talking about taxpayers and liability when you just voted on $600 billion, $600 billion in tax relief which is unpaid for.

I just want to say to Frank Wolf: you are good man, and I wish you the best of luck. You raised the respect of this institution, and that is pretty difficult to do nowadays, Frank. I wish you the best of luck. As cosponsor of this…

Most patients do not know that they are in observation, and the Medicare program does not require hospitals to tell them.

I cosponsored along with Joe Courtney and Tom Latham, it is bipartisan, the Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act.

I think we can work together, I really do, to find solutions that work for hospitals and for patients.

New Jersey is in a unique position because my state is an all-urban state with no rural or critical access hospitals.

You mentioned earlier observation status is particularly problematic when Medicare beneficiaries need care in a skilled nursing facility after leaving the hospital.

So, Mr. Chairman, in conclusion if we don't identify and respect the right to know, and we had a Patients Bill of Rights, which is part of the reform process that we are now going through, then we defeat the purpose of what we are doing.

Talk about our system of justice about, when you have a buck in your pocket, you stay out of jail; when you don't have a buck, you sure the hell will go to jail.

I think that we should be interested in these kinds of things. Correct?

I am encouraged that we get some bipartisan support.

In the words of Vice President--remember him--Dick Cheney, he proclaimed, ``Deficits don't matter.'' So, you have had a call to religion. You have come back. Your budget, the deficit is simply an excuse to cut the social safety net. So I…

This budget is fundamentally unserious. We have heard this now for 4 years in a row. My friends on the other side of the aisle come down to the floor with their draconian budget claiming they are reluctantly forced to make tough decisions…

My good friend Sam Johnson I worked very closely with this year, said to CMS officials, you guys have done a super job.

The rate of uninsured Americans has declined and is now at the lowest level recorded since 2008.

I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, this isn't as complicated as one would pretend it to be. First of all, the CBO says, if this was the law of the land, in other words, if this bill would have been passed by both the House and the Senate…

Thank you very much to my colleague from New Jersey. First of all, no one on this side of the aisle ever suggested that we need no rules. See, what you are trying to do is put everyone at extremes, and that is where we are many times…

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't like the Federal loan guarantee programs that help first-time homebuyers, that help less fortunate Americans pay for their education. They are willing to cook the books in order to make a…

More than 7 million Americans have enrolled in private coverage and 3 million have enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program.

American people are fed up because they have seen the results, which many times have not helped us at all in the long run.