Political Quotes

“At midnight last night the House leadership came up with a Medicare corrections bill that reminds me of someone who can mess up a one-car funeral. At the end of September, the Committee on Commerce considered and passed a bipartisan bill that would restore funds for both Medicare and Medicaid programs. The bipartisan Committee on Commerce bill froze DSH payments so our hospitals could benefit. It established a minimum payment floor for community health centers. It delayed across-the-board cuts for home health care reimbursements and allowed States to provide CHIP coverage for legal immigrant children and pregnant women. It would have provided some more funding for HMOs. Our bill was a balanced bill. But what do we have now with this midnight concoction? We have a bill that is skewed to the HMOs. To give 47 percent of the money in this bill to HMOs that only serve 15 percent of our seniors does not help another senior, and it does not help them get any more HMO coverage either. It is frustrating. I have a county that the HMOs have bailed out except one. You know what we want? If they are going to get more money, they need to agree to cover seniors more than for one year and leave them stranded like they have in Harris County and Houston, Texas. We do not need to give a penny to them until they will agree to cover our seniors.”