MARTINEZ DISCUSSES HEALTH CARE REFORM IN TAMPA
U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) today addressed members of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of South Florida during their health care forum. Senator Martinez discussed health care issues plaguing the nation.
Martinez said:
"Finding a solution to insure the 4 million uninsured Floridians is one of my top priorities. We need to level the playing field so that more Americans can afford to purchase health insurance. One way to do that is to allow individuals to use tax-free dollars to purchase a plan - I've introduced a bill that does just that.
"We also need to address the issue of Medicare fraud because it's rampant and it's taking critical health care resources from the people who need it most. This is a $60 billion dollar problem; fixing it will take a two pronged approach. The first step in addressing it is to increase the penalties so that the would-be perpetrators are possibly deterred from engaging in fraud; I have a proposal to increase the penalties and the Senate has approved that measure. The second step is to better coordinate oversight and law enforcement efforts. Only after those things are complete will we get a handle on the problem."