The Public Record
Tom Coburn is a former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, serving from 2005 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Coburn was known for his fiscal conservatism and advocacy for government transparency. He was a practicing physician before entering politics, which influenced his views on healthcare and government spending. Throughout his tenure, he was a vocal critic of wasteful government expenditures and often called for reforms to improve accountability in Congress.
I think there are two reasons. One is because there is large support of those who wrote this legislation by those who benefit from suing doctors. That is pretty straightforward. And the doctor's only defense is to order tests which they…
They are not going to find a doctor, and that is the whole problem. Whatever we see in the urban areas now, multiply it tenfold in the rural areas. We are going to increase eligibility for Medicaid to 133 percent of the poverty level, we…
Yes, they will pay the fee. They will pay the tax and say it is easier. Consequently, the young people in our country, because we do not have a big enough payment under the ``individual mandate,'' are going to say it is smarter for me to…
this amendment saves $6.5 billion over the next 10 years for what it does on fraudulent Medicaid prescriptions-- $6.5 billion--$650 million a year on fraudulent prescriptions. It also creates a prohibition so that erectile dysfunction…
What needs to be fixed in this bill is a whole lot more than that, but this is a great attempt to try to solve a problem. Let me describe a scenario, what is getting ready to happen. Every State is cutting Medicaid reimbursement. We are…
We got this 1\1/2\ minutes ago to see the language. You have an amendment on the floor that actually accomplishes everything you want to do. Why are we doing this? Because you do not want to mess up a package that is clean. It has every…
If I may, I would like to add one other thing here. Think about it. We are talking about the cuts that are set to go. But since there is no tort reform in this bill, we spend $250 billion on defensive medicine and liability costs continue…
That is everybody in this country who has private insurance, either through their employer or the individual market.
All I will tell you is, the best guess of CBO--wonderful people, but they can only make decisions within the parameters they are given. There is no question private insurance, individual and family insurance, is going to go up, but…
What it is going to do is exacerbate the cost shifting going on with Medicare and Medicaid right now, which means insurance rates for everybody else in the country are going to go up.
This is a constructive amendment that saves millions and millions of dollars in Medicaid. The fraud in Medicaid prescriptions is out of this world. It can be fixed. This amendment will prohibit prescriptions for recreational drugs for…
If you look at Thomson Reuters and several others who have studied the health care field, the estimate for defensive medicine costs is $250 billion a year. It is not just that we order tests that protect us from frivolous lawsuits, but…
What happens to all this? What is the ultimate? The ultimate is failure of the insurance market.
I applaud President Obama for wanting to make more steps towards transparency, but I would caution him...
The whole idea behind sub-awards and subcontracts was for everyday citizens could actually see what is going on.
But part of not complying with the law is explaining to us why you are not complying with the law.
I rise to bring attention to the crucial role of health care professionals in providing quality health care across our Nation. Other than being a father, grandfather, and husband nothing has been more personally satisfying for me than…
If we are not going to do sub-awards and sub-grantees, there is no reason to have the site in the first place.
As a matter of fact, this will be the second year that we do not have a report.
I would like to see as much emphasis in fixing the Transparency and Accountability Act as the Administration plans to put on these other wonderful areas of transparency...
I do not doubt that, but what you just told me is you choose to do this rather than follow the law.
We have actually eliminated a bunch of highly effective teachers in Oklahoma to meet the requirements of what the Federal Government has said you have to meet.
I think it is a very noble attempt to try to put better hands on the stimulus. It is interesting to note that when we had the first hearing with the IG who is overseeing the stimulus, he said, regrettably, $50 billion would be wasted; that…
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