On the recordNovember 17, 2011
I thank the gentleman from Michigan. Mr. Speaker, we've touched upon it, and I want to continue having this conversation about the effect that the Affordable Care Act is going to have on our hospitals in our Medicare population. Now, Mr. Speaker, you may have heard over and over again from our colleagues from the other side of the aisle, demagoguing our budget proposal that came out in April. They say we want to kill Medicare; we want to kill Social Security; we don't care about our seniors. Tonight I stand here, Mr. Speaker, and I tell you, and I want to tell the American people, that the Affordable Care Act, in fact, cuts Medicare spending by $500 billion. Those are actual cuts that are now in the Affordable Care Act, or what is known as the health care law. One of the most negative effects is the result of reductions in hospital Medicare payments and the CMS code, offsetting reductions to hospital payment plans. I have a chart here, Mr. Speaker. And as I go through my notes, I want it to be clear that you can see 2010 and what happens to Medicare reimbursements, down until 2018. Our hospitals can't sustain these cuts. The five hospitals in my district have come to me, and they said, This Affordable Care Act--and many of these hospitals were big proponents of the Affordable Care Act because they know in our country we need to reform our health care system, we need to make some changes, so they were in support of the law.…
