Joe Pitts

At this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski).

At this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Kansas (Ms. Jenkins), the distinguished secretary of our caucus.

I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).

At this time I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the distinguished chairman of the Republican Study Committee and a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

At this time, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

At this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia, Eric Cantor, our distinguished majority leader.

At this time, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), a distinguished member of the Health Subcommittee.

I am pleased, at this time, to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), who is an expert on this issue.

At this time I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), the distinguished chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

We have no other speakers. I would urge all Members to support this bill, H.R. 3527, in order to save lives. It's a bipartisan, good bill that deserves every Member's support. And with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

At this time, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry), the prime sponsor of the bill.

At this time, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

I think those are just a couple of examples of many of these programs in our discussion today which work to save money.

I am prepared to close and yield myself the balance of the time. Mr. Speaker, this is very important bipartisan legislation. It includes the 3-month bridge for the SGR, where we can continue to work in a bipartisan manner to come up with…

I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith), a member of the Health Subcommittee.

I am concerned that under Order 1000, FERC is defining benefits so broadly and spreading costs so widely that this simple axiom has no meaning anymore.

Individuals are losing coverage that they are happy with and the doctors with which they are comfortable, and this is a tragedy.

It is clear that the Medicare Advantage program is under attack and that these beneficiaries are beginning to feel the effects of the over $300 billion in direct and indirect cuts included in Obamacare.

I would suggest to you that that is pretty disingenuous to say if you like your plan, you can keep it.

I must say with all due respect to the committee, I think that the parity adjustment to get Medicare Advantage back to fee-for-service, which was enacted, is not the issue that should be focused on.

What I think happens fundamentally in the Medicare Advantage program is that it allows for more of a freedom of choice among the different competitors in there being the insurance companies that are offering those programs and allows for…

I believe there are several existing reform proposals for Medicare Advantage that merit further discussion and feedback.

Medicare Advantage has a proven record of success and is popular with seniors because it provides better services, a higher quality of care and increased care coordination.

The Affordable Care Act--ACA--as noted in a July 24, 2012, Congressional Budget Office--CBO--report, cut $716 billion from Medicare.

The cuts in the Affordable Care Act pose a real danger to seniors keeping their doctors and the benefits that they now have in Medicare Advantage.