Political Quotes

“Some of the observations of just watching the summit, as I guess it was called--I have a question for you. I will come back to you for that. Some observations of the proceedings that I watched today when I had an opportunity to tune in in my office--I wasn't on the invitation list to be there. It was pretty limited invitations. But I heard--and I don't know which leader it was, whether it was the President or the Speaker or whom, made comments there were absolutely no Medicare cuts that are involved in this. And yet the fact is the Congressional Budget Office Director, Doug Elmendorf, back on December 19, just a month ago or 2 months ago, noted that there were Medicare cuts, and those Medicare cuts built into this impact all areas of health care from hospitals to skilled nursing to home health to hospice. Hospice, which is a wonderful service for people who are in the final stage of dying, where they have the support of compassionate health care professionals surrounded by family to be able to die with dignity, and yet that is an area, one of many areas of Medicare cuts that are slated for under these proposals. In my responsibilities across many different settings of health care, I have to say that there is a lot of reasons why commercial health insurance is expensive. Tort reform I would put right on top of the list. But maybe even higher on the list, I would say, is the Federal Government.…”