Preserving Medicare Patient Access

Floor Speech

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, this week the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health will begin a markup on legislation to fix a problem that Congress has been struggling with for over a decade, and that's fixing what's known as the ``doc fix,'' or the sustainable growth rate formula.

The proposed legislation is bipartisan. Both sides of the dais agree that this must be done, and it incorporates the feedback we've received from over 80 stakeholder groups. The legislation replaces the problematic formula with an improved system to increase the quality of care for Medicare patients while streamlining the costly and complicated process in a fiscally responsible way.

Most importantly, the legislation ensures that Medicare patients will continue to have access to medical service. By providing incentives for doctors to continue to treat Medicare patients, we're putting the health of our seniors first.

I'm proud to be part of this commonsense solution, and I look forward to speaking to this House more about this in the weeks to come as it works its way through committee.

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