Tom Coburn: “If you are poor and you are on Medicaid, this bill takes away the right of your physician to determine when you should…”

“If you are poor and you are on Medicaid, this bill takes away the right of your physician to determine when you should be discharged from the hospital. We put that in in committee. We did that on purpose, because you have a right to have quality care and the profits of a health insurance industry should not come above that. This rule does not take it out of Medicare. We put it in Medicare, too. But AARP is such a strong force that we did not have the courage to take it out in the Medicare portion of this bill. So if you are poor, you are blown away. If you are protected by Medicare, you are protected for right now. When it gets to conference, your ability to have quality medical care determining your discharge based on what is best for your health is going to be eliminated in conference. That is the plan. So, America, wake up; this bill determines your health care and your quality not by your physician but by the insurance company that is running the managed care program.”