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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Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I support S. 2499, the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007. It's important that Congress pass this legislation today to ensure that our Nation's poorest children retain their health insurance and doctors who take care of our seniors on Medicare do not receive a 10 percent cut in reimbursements.

It's deeply disappointing that this bill doesn't address the issue of the Medicare physician geographic payment discrepancy that is faced by many areas in California and across the country. One of these areas is Sonoma County, in my District. This inconsistency has led to doctor's reimbursements being based upon their geographic location and not the true cost of providing services. Because of this discrepancy, doctors in Sonoma County receive a lower payment for the same services than doctors in next door Marin County and this discrepancy is causing doctors to leave Sonoma County. Congress needs to act to fix this discrepancy and ensure that physicians with Medicare patients can continue to afford to see their patients regardless of where their practice is located.

Because of the Republican led efforts, the bill only delays a real solution to the Medicare physician payment cuts that all doctors are facing. We can and must do better for our seniors. When the Medicare extension expires in June, we owe it to our seniors and physicians to replace it with a permanent fix to the physician payment cuts and payment discrepancies.

With this bill, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) will be extended and states will receive enough funding to keep all the children currently enrolled on SCHIP from being removed from the program. But, this bill doesn't help the millions more children whose families cannot afford health insurance and who should be covered under SCHIP. Earlier this year, Congress passed an SCHIP bill that would have given 4 million more children healthcare, for a total of 10 million children receiving healthcare on SCHIP. However, the Administration showed that its priorities are completely out of line with the rest of this country when it vetoed that legislation. We need to do better for our nation's children and provide all of them with the healthy start and security that SCHIP can provide.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill and look forward to working with them to provide a permanent solution to the Medicare physician payment issues and in ensuring that every child in America is insured.

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