Jim McDermott: “This type of fraud is just as detrimental to our beneficiaries as to the solvency of the Medicare trust fund.”

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.

The truth is that Medicare must be strengthened, not cut, and benefits must be expanded, not scaled back.

Last year, we came together with MACRA. That landmark reform repealed the SGR and already started the process of transforming how we try to pay physicians under Medicare.

Mr. Blumenauer put through a bill, Mr. Levin and I put a bill in 25 years ago, that everybody in Medicare ought to file an advance directive.