Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. First, I want to commend and thank our Democrat colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee and the staff for working so hard, along with Energy and Commerce and the Finance Committee in the Senate, to find a good, solid solution. I think we have made a big step forward. We have got some work to do. I know we can do it. I went to see my doctor the other week. He is 66 years old, looks like he is 46; kind of makes me mad. But he has got a successful practice, a very good doctor. He told me he would like to keep practicing for another 5 or 6 years, and he said: But Kevin, I am not going to. This will probably be my last year. Medicare has just made it too hard for him to stay this practice. As I left the examining room, I looked at his assistant who has been with him 30-some years, all his professional staff, a full waiting room, and I thought, what are we doing chasing a doctor like this out of practice early? Who is going to replace him? Who is going to take care of these people? He is not alone. In Texas, less than half of Texas family physicians take new Medicare patients. Many of them are rethinking their relationship with Medicare. Others are closing their private practices. So more and more seniors are chasing fewer and fewer doctors, and that is the dilemma we face today. Maybe I am an optimist, but I think we are 90 percent of the way toward solving this solution. We have broad support for this policy and this bill.…”