GOP Doctors Caucus: Save Medicare

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARRIS. Thank you for yielding to me to speak on this very important issue.

Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Louisiana has said, we really have to talk about saving Medicare. Medicare is under assault in a way that it has never been under assault before. The gentleman from Louisiana mentioned quite accurately that the President's health care bill passed 2 years ago would take $500 billion from Medicare spending on our seniors who are currently receiving Medicare--$500 billion. Now, how are they going to do that? What are we not going to deliver to those seniors?

Well, the way it's done is the President appoints the Independent Payment Advisory Board, 15 appointed, not elected members, no appeal from their judgment.

What they're going to do is they're going to say in a year when it looks like we're going to spend a little more on Medicare than the country can afford by the budget, we're going to decide what can and can't be delivered. The President's budget he just released this week makes it even worse because it sets even a lower budget target for Medicare spending. And, of course, the President doesn't even deal with the issue that's before the House this week, which is what are we going to do about physician payments.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I represent a rural area of Maryland, Maryland's First Congressional District, where it's already very difficult for seniors to find a physician who is willing to take a new Medicare patient because, to be honest with you, they're afraid that their pay is going to be cut 30 percent at the end of this month, on February 29. And the President, in his budget, doesn't even deal with this issue. The President doubles down on the President's health care act. He sticks to that $500 billion in cuts that are going to occur. And not only that, he lowers the threshold for that Independent Payment Advisory Board to begin rationing care to our seniors. We have got to save Medicare.

Mr. Speaker, some of the people listening are going to say, well, we're not going to believe these people. They all wanted to vote against the President's health care bill. Mr. Speaker, they don't need to believe us. Go to the Congressional Budget Office's Web site. It's nonpartisan. It doesn't pick sides. It says that the Medicare plan is going to go broke by the end of this decade. And if you don't believe them, go to the Medicare trustee's Web site. Just go to Google and search Medicare trustee's report. They say it goes bankrupt a few years after that.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is right. We have to address Medicare, and we have to address it now before the President's health care act destroys health care for seniors. My mother, who is 88 years old, depends on her Medicare. She depends on her prescription drug coverage. She depends on it to have access to the physicians that she needs for her health care. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm afraid that under the President's plan, my mother, and millions of other Americans, our seniors receiving Medicare, are just not going to have the care they're used to and that they deserve. We need to save Medicare.

Mr. Speaker, I think we're going to hear about some of the ideas tonight about how we're going to do that. So I want to thank my colleague from Louisiana for yielding me these few minutes, and thank you for coming to the floor and doing this work tonight so that we show our Members and show the public who's watching how we have to save Medicare for our seniors. Thank you for yielding to me.

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