Political Quotes

“My experience is exactly what the Senator describes. He said the words ``the illusion of coverage.'' When the President talked about the health care law, so often he wasn't actually talking about care; he was using the word ``coverage,'' and he was trying to use those words interchangeably. But coverage is not care, because someone having a card doesn't mean they can actually see a doctor. We see that with Medicaid now, with its low levels of reimbursement. With seniors already having trouble getting in to see a physician, this has a significant impact when a board, an independent payment advisory board--15 unelected bureaucrats--decides they are going to decide how much to pay for a doctor's visit, how much they are going to pay a hospital for a bypass surgery or a hip replacement, which is an area of my specialty. That hospital has to decide if they are going to provide that service. That doctor gets to decide whether they are going to see that patient. In rural communities, if the reimbursement is so low--and I have heard this from hospital administrators in Wyoming. If the reimbursement level is so low for a procedure that is primarily, if not exclusively, done on people of Medicare age--and we can think of those things that are more likely to happen with someone over the age of 65-- the hospital may ultimately decide they cannot continue to afford to provide those services and keep the doors open to a hospital.…”