Political Quotes

“It could not. According to the President's budget numbers and the way this bill is written and the financial gimmickry, they want to cut physician fees for Medicare by 21 percent and keep them frozen for the next 10 years. So it is cut and freeze for 10 years, and they use that as one of the additional financial gimmicks. Well, if you do that to the doctors in the country, who are already reluctant to see Medicare patients because the payment is so low--the Mayo Clinic said they are not going to see new Medicare patients because the reimbursement at today's rates is so low--if you drop them 21 percent additionally at a time when the Congressional Budget Office says one-fifth of the hospitals and one-fifth of the doctors' offices in this country will be unable to continue to be solvent 10 years from now if this bill goes into place--we know without a question that we cannot allow that to happen. Congress knows that, the doctors know that, the American people know it. Everybody knows it except, apparently, the people writing the health care bill, who say: Oh, this is actually going to save money in the long run. When people look at this in an honest way, they know this is going to drive up the cost of care and make the quality of care for our American citizens go down.”