Joe Pitts

Obamacare, unfortunately, provided only $5 billion in its Preexisting Condition Insurance Plan.

Obviously I would like to make sure that everybody who has a preexisting health condition can get coverage.

Didn't this requirement essentially force patients to let their conditions deteriorate while they waited for the ACA's arbitrary 6-month waiting period to run out?

We sent a letter to the President asking to work together to redirect funding in the President's health care law to ensure that no sick American is turned away.

Although we still hope for a full repeal of the health care law and replace it with other reforms, we have reached out to President Obama and asked him to work with us to help those most in need get coverage and care.

In the Republican alternative to Obamacare, we proposed $25 billion over 10 years to aid Americans suffering from preexisting conditions.

I will freely admit that many of the current state based programs are underfunded and lacking the ability to meet their needs.

From the beginning, however, one area that both sides have designated as a top priority is coverage for those with preexisting conditions.

This has been a very interesting hearing, very important issue, very informative.

So don't be scared. Look at the law, look at the reality, and don't listen to the political rhetoric which this week has been orchestrated very carefully by my Republican colleagues.

I think it is up to Congress to decide what FDA's role should be.

I believe, and I think all of our witnesses today will agree with me, that if a technology developer is going to make health-based claims, then there must be a role for FDA to ensure it is safe and effective.

Electronic Health Records hold great promise for the delivery of care given and quality of care received in this country.

Congress has acted, and in fact, when we had the Medical Devices User Fee Act in the last Congress, we specifically rejected in that bill a moratorium on FDA's use of its authority over medical devices that happened to be implemented as…

Now I am afraid that my Republican friends are going to spend this day making up false stories about how the Affordable Care Act and FDA regulation is stifling innovation--how our smartphones are going to be taxed and Apple's manufacturing…

However, with the proliferation of these technologies have come concerns about how their use may negatively impact patients.

Therefore, this hearing is an appropriate place to examine the extent to which the FDA and other federal agencies should be involved in regulation of health information technologies.

We owe them. That is what the American dream has been about.

That is what this budget that is coming out tomorrow does. It honors the promise we made to people at or near retirement.

I mean, what else are they going to have? They are not going to have anything else.

I think there are a lot of untreated and undertreated people with that condition that are heading into their Medicare years quite soon.

Absent reform--and this is a letter from the from Social Security Administration. When you retire, you get a letter.

With more than 14 million Americans depending on the Medicare Advantage program today, what do you think the Obamacare cuts mean for the beneficiaries enrolled?

The only question is, how long will America and Americans tolerate staring at these problems without fixing them for future generations?

We must consider reforms that address the structure of this very critical entitlement program.