Jim McDermott: “To make that a reality we have to move the conversation in Congress away from harmful ideas like privatizing the program…”

Now, the reason I raise this issue is that we all know that about 70 percent of healthcare costs occur in the last 6 months of life.

It is not what happens in Mr. Kind's district, where about 80 percent of the people have advance directives.

We have begun to lay the groundwork for payment reform by passing the IMPACT Act, which will give us the data we need to improve quality in post-acute care settings.

the bottom line, as far as I am concerned, is what happens to patients.