Political Quotes

“the $12 billion that CBO says the House bill cuts from hospitals, $9 billion of that comes from hospitals serving rural communities. As I said the other day when we were talking about this approach, all the medical technology in the world is of no use to me or anyone else if it is not accessible. Over 47 percent of the 134 acute care hospitals in Tennessee are losing money. A lot of these hospitals are in rural areas that simply will not be able to remain open with the market basket reduction, with the way this bill is drafted, and with the demands that are being placed on them. Literally, if one believes that accessibility to medical technology is as important as the technology itself, and I cannot imagine anybody who would argue that it is not, if they cannot get to a doctor or a hospital with a heart attack in time, they are going to die. So it really does not make sense to say this medical technology is important in and of itself. There also has to be this accessibility issue to be addressed, and this bill is not addressing this accessibility issue.”