Political Quotes

“the changes that Speaker Gingrich and Mr. Dole put into the Medicare and Medicaid bill, will go the exact opposite direction of where we wanted to go in detecting fraud, waste, and abuse, rooting it out and eliminating it. There is the balanced billing issue, there is the issue that allows a doctor, which is prohibited now under the law, but which they want to allow a doctor to be able to refer a patient to an MRI facility or some other diagnostic or clinical facility that the doctor owns, and then go ahead and charge the Government for the referral and the original visit, and then the diagnostic equipment and treatment at that center. It was one issue after another issue that they opened up to more fraud, waste, and abuse, in a system that already has 10 or 15 percent fraud, waste, and abuse. The first thing we need to do with Medicare and Medicaid is not make cuts to pay for a tax break for a relatively small number of very wealthy people. The first thing we need to do is root out the waste, fraud and abuse. Then we can deal with the fiscal issues with Medicare. But do not charge senior citizens, raise their premium from $46 to $110 a year, and raise the deductibles and copays.”