Earl Blumenauer: “To close just by saying, again, I express my appreciation to the chairman and to Mr. Smith for moving this forward. We…”

“To close just by saying, again, I express my appreciation to the chairman and to Mr. Smith for moving this forward. We find that the evaluations of the PACE program have proven that participants experience better health outcomes, fewer unmet needs, less pain, less likelihood of depression, and fewer hospitalizations and nursing home admissions. There are people out there now, if we make this change, that are ready to extend this higher quality of care for very deserving, needy, and vulnerable people who are younger than the threshold 55 years of age. Mr. Speaker, I urge we vote tonight, enact it into law, and let these people get to work serving these people in a new and profoundly improved way. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”