Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, this week the House has an opportunity to make historic reforms to Medicare that will provide certainty to doctors and patients across the country.

I spent 30 years practicing as a heart surgeon, fighting to save lives on the operating table every day.

I know firsthand that the cycle of temporary patches and extensions injects tremendous uncertainty into the process, making it much more difficult to run a successful practice.

Last week, I stood with a bipartisan group of Representatives and Senators to introduce the replacement legislation under consideration.

This bill repeals the unworkable SGR, consolidates duplicative programs, and improves transparency for patients and doctors. It is a historic solution to a problem that has plagued doctors and providers for over a decade.

But no solution is one hundred percent perfect.

I believe we must continue working toward full repeal of the unworkable Medicare outpatient therapy cap, something I've introduced legislation to address and will continue to work with my colleagues to make this law.

That's something I'll continue to fight for.

But today, it's time for Congress to do what we are elected to do: come together, find common ground, and pass a solution.

This is the first meaningful opportunity to fix this broken system in years--let's not bypass this moment.

I encourage all of my colleagues to support this permanent doc fix.

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