Time to Make a Permanent Fix to the Medicare Payment Formula

Floor Speech

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, we find ourselves up against another deadline for the so-called ``doc fix,'' and this happens because this Congress lacks the courage to solve the problem. The fact is, Mr. Speaker, the longer we put off doing a permanent fix, the more expensive it gets. If the problem had been fixed 5 years ago, it would have cost $49 billion.

Here is an ad that the AMA has been running in some of the papers here on Capitol Hill. The cost to fix the bill now is $210 billion, but if we wait 3 years, it almost doubles to $396 billion and then balloons to half a trillion dollars in 5 years.

But there is a better way. H.R. 3693 would make a permanent fix to the formula Medicare uses to determine payments to doctors, and it's critical for our patients because patients cannot get access to a Medicare physician because, consider this, Medicare physician payment rates are about where they were in 2001. Medical practice costs have increased more than 20 percent. What's worse, the current fee pays doctors less each year for performing the same procedures.

I urge the Congress to pass a reasonable Medicare physician fix. The time has come and gone.

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