Political Quotes

“The bill we're considering today, H.R. 5, the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, or PATH, is about patient access to care, plain and simple. In the months leading up to the passage of the health care law and since the law was enacted, Congress has spent countless hours talking about the need to increase access to health care. The health care law signed nearly 2 years ago was the wrong direction for our country and for our citizens, and it will negatively impact access to care. The two issues that we're going to address here today in this legislation--repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, and enacting meaningful medical liability reforms--are key to ensuring that all Americans have access to quality care. Now, as to the first piece of this legislation, the IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, let's be very clear: nothing about these advisory rulings are advisory. Good luck to anybody; good luck if you try to ignore the advice of the IPAB. It's going to be more like a medical IRS than an advisory panel. Let's be clear: the very purpose of this IPAB is to save money by restricting access to health care for Medicare beneficiaries. It will achieve these savings by ratcheting down payments to providers who are already underpaid by Medicare. This will lead to fewer doctors who are willing to see Medicare beneficiaries, and, undeniably, this will lead to delays and denials of care.…”