Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007

Floor Speech

MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND SCHIP EXTENSION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - December 19, 2007)

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Mr. DEAL of Georgia. I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in support of S. 2499. This vital legislation will help preserve Medicare beneficiaries' access to their physicians' services, in addition to providing States certainty as to their ability to cover their SCHIP children for the next 13 months and to continue to enroll eligible children in their programs.

While this bill does not contain the needed reform of the sustainable growth rate formula in Medicare, it averts a payment cut for physicians which, I fear, would have dramatically impacted physician participation in Medicare. Moving forward, I hope that we would work in a bipartisan way to reform this SGR system rather than continuing these short fix programs that we have seen for the last several years. The physicians who serve this Nation's elderly population should not be subject to this annual uncertainty, constantly wondering whether or not they will be able to afford to see their Medicare patients.

On the second subject, for months I have supported a long-term extension of the SCHIP program to ensure that children currently enrolled would continue to have health care services, and to allow States the certainty of funding so that they can continue to enroll eligible children.

In the coming months there should be ample opportunity for SCHIP legislation to move through a regular legislative process without the pressures created by last-minute expiration of the program. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on this bill, which would help put and continue to put low-income children first, and continues the purpose of the original program: To serve the neediest children with health care. As a supporter of the program, it is unfortunate to me that we have not been able to reauthorize it for a longer period of time, but this extension should give us the opportunity to do so in a thoughtful and appropriate process. I would hope to work on these issues in a bipartisan fashion next year, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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