Joe Pitts

I agree with Mr. Pallone and Ms. Schwartz that we ought to repeal IPAB. It is wrongheaded. It is boneheaded.

I am concerned that IPAB's enormous power will grow at the expense of Congress.

Continuously cutting reimbursement to Medicare providers will prevent access to care for Medicare beneficiaries.

I am concerned that the only tool in the IPAB toolbox will be cutting payments to providers.

I do not believe that IPAB is the right answer.

The program faces costs not covered by the Medicare tax of more than $30 trillion over the next 75 years.

Ten thousand seniors become eligible for Medicare every day.

The fundamental concept underlying the administration's approach to health reform is that the government... knows better than patients and their doctors.

Today's hearing on the Independent Payment Advisory Board comes at a crucial time.

This is not a partisan issue; it is about children's health and lives. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

We cannot simply zero out this important program, as the administration has requested, and hope that other Federal programs not specifically dedicated to pediatric health care will pick up the slack.

Patients, including those with life-threatening diseases, are willing to tolerate additional risk in order to try these new drugs.

The American people expect and have a right to expect that the Federal Government is doing everything possible to ensure that drugs on the market are safe and effective.

Americans are the most innovative people on Earth.

If PDUFA is not reauthorized, this study estimates that 130,000 to 260,000 jobs would be lost.

The current PDUFA authorization expires September 30, 2012, and it is my intention to have the reauthorization legislation signed into law by June 30 of next year.

By the time all the baby boomers have it, 15 billion, the bill for Alzheimer's will equal the defense budget.

I think it is also calling upon us to increase the NIH research budget so that we can find a cure.

We have got to address it now.

Dual eligibles, those individuals who are eligible for both the Medicare and Medicaid programs, are one of our sickest, poorest, most costly and most vulnerable populations.

So someone's testimony appears to be false here.

It appears that Chairman Jaczko has let politics trump science here.

Do you consider his press release an adequate response to your report?

When compliance costs go up, that cuts into a business' bottom line, and that means jobs are likely to be lost.

What should raise some red flags with every member of this committee... is single-handedly crippling an entire segment of our economy.