Political Quotes

“this bill has many items in it, one of which we call the doctors' fix, which prevents a 10.6-percent pay cut for physicians who participate in Medicare. It provides a payment freeze for 2008 and a 1.1-percent update for 2009. These are very important to the medical community. The reason this legislation is important is, sure, the doctors should not have to take a pay cut. But the main thing is, this bill does not protect physicians; it protects patients because doctors have been dropping out of Medicare for a long number of years. There are many physicians in America today who will not treat Medicare patients because the payments are too low. But it is a spiraling effect. It is a snowballing effect. Many reimbursements through insurance companies and other organizations are based on what the Medicare reimbursement is. If this is low, then doctors all over the country will be affected. Patients will be affected. People, I repeat, will no longer be able to be treated by their physicians. We know all these doctors' organizations that are part of this 200-plus organizations I submitted, the reason they are in favor of it is they want their physicians to treat Medicare patients. This will drive people out of Medicare. We all recognize that President Bush does not like Social Security. He does not like Medicare. He wants them to go away. He wants to privatize Social Security, and he wants to do away with Medicare. This is his effort to do so.”