"Insurance companies would be empowered to avoid caring for the sick people who cut into their profit margin."
"Reduced insurance premiums for some people are little consolation for the consumers who, under H.R. 371, would be left without coverage."
"If you would continue, Dr. Parente, would the optimum policy goal be to have a system where consumers have more choice?"
"it is the patient protections that need to be in place"
"I hope that today's hearing will be a useful one for my colleagues."
"the protections that would be repealed include, among others, prohibiting gender rating, prohibiting the denial of people and children with preexisting conditions insurance"
"This will harm the sick, the elderly, and the disabled--all of whom already pay high costs for their medical care."
"I hope that this hearing will not focus narrowly on options that would shift our problems paying for the SGR onto beneficiaries."
"I earnestly hope we can work together on a bipartisan basis to solve this issue this year."
"According to the most recent Congressional Budget Office estimate if nothing is done physicians will see reimbursement for services provided to Medicare patients cut by 29.4 percent on January 1, 2012..."
"The system that is currently used to pay physicians for providing services to beneficiaries in the Medicare System is broken and has been for some time."