[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H1453-H1490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROTECTING ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE ACT
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the
legislation and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 5.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 591 and rule
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House
on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 5.
{time} 1505
In the Committee of the Whole
Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill
(H.R. 5) to improve patient access to health care services and provide
improved medical care by reducing the excessive burden the liability
system places on the health care delivery system, with Mr. Westmoreland
in the chair.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The CHAIR. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the
first time.
General debate shall be confined to the bill and amendments specified
in House Resolution 591 and shall not exceed 6 hours equally divided
among and controlled by the respective chairs and ranking minority
members of the Committees on Energy and Commerce, the Judiciary, and
Ways and Means.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton).
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I might consume.
I rise today in support of the PATH Act, which addresses two of the
most glaring deficiencies in the President's overhaul of the health
care system.
By what it does and also by what it fails to do, the health care law
threatens access to quality health care for literally millions of
Americans.
Section 3403 of the Affordable Care Act established the Independent
Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB. A panel of 15 unelected, unaccountable
bureaucrats will be given the power to make major decisions regarding
what goods and services are valuable. These decisions will then be
fast-tracked, essentially bypassing the legislative process, with
almost no opportunity for discussion or review. The PATH Act prevents
this by repealing IPAB.
I suspect that most Americans still believe that patients and their
doctors should have a voice and should be able to decide what health
care services that they find valuable. I think that they still believe
that major policy decisions affecting the Medicare program and the
health care system in general need to go through the regular
legislative process and be subject to the normal system of checks and
balances according to the Constitution.
It is encouraging that the cosponsors of legislation to repeal IPAB
include 20 Democrats and that the bill was favorably reported out of
the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month without any
recorded opposition--a voice vote.
I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support
repealing IPAB and not to block its passage at the expense of our
seniors in a blind effort to defend the President's signature
legislation.
The legislation today also includes reforms that will actually lower
the
[[Page H1454]]
cost of health care, a glaring omission in the President's health care
law. The health care law failed to provide any meaningful reform to the
broken and costly medical liability system, which is currently one of
the largest cost drivers of our health care system.
The current system is responsible for as much as $200 billion a year
in unnecessary spending on defensive medicine. It fails to compensate
injured patients in a fair and timely matter, and it threatens access
to quality health care by driving good doctors out of high-risk
specialties such as obstetrics and neurosurgery.
{time} 1510
According to the CBO, these commonsense reforms will reduce the
Federal deficit by $48.6 billion over the next 10 years.
How have opponents proposed to fix this present system? They want to
spend more; $50 million in grants for State demonstrations, as called
for in the health care law, is not a solution. It's an abdication of
responsibility. The President promised to look at Republican ideas for
medical liability reform. Passing this legislation is the very first
step towards allowing the President to make good on that promise.
Health care decisions should be made between a doctor and a patient.
That relationship doesn't work when bureaucrats and trial lawyers come
between them. So I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this
legislation.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in opposition to H.R. 5. It combines two very bad ideas into
one terrible bill that is anti-senior, anti-consumer, and anti-health.
It's no accident that we're considering the legislation during the
second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, because this is a thinly
veiled, partisan attempt to confuse the public and obscure the law's
success in covering young people, reducing costs for seniors, and
providing improved health benefits.
Title I of the bill before us, the medical malpractice provisions,
have been around for over a decade. They have not been enacted under
Democratic or Republican Congresses and Presidents because they are an
extreme intrusion on the authority of the States to set their own
liability rules and would shield bad actors from accountability when
they cause injury and death.
Let's be clear: this bill is much broader than traditional medical
malpractice legislation. It protects manufacturers, distributors,
suppliers, marketers, even promoters of health care products. And it
gives them protection even if they intentionally cause harm. Insurance
companies and HMOs are protected as well. The bill shields drug and
device manufacturers with complete immunity from punitive damages, no
matter how reckless their conduct, so long as their products were at
one time approved by the FDA.
This bill preempts State action in an area that has traditionally
been left to the States. To the extent that we do have a medical
malpractice problem in this country, it should be addressed at the
State level. But this bill not only strips away State law; it puts in
place a Federal scheme that will not reduce medical errors, will not
award appropriate and adequate compensation when an injury occurs, and
will not lower health care costs.
The second part of the bill would repeal the Independent Payment
Advisory Board, which helps keep Medicare costs under control if they
rise more than anticipated. IPAB's role is to recommend evidence-based
policies to improve Medicare without harming patients.
Repealing IPAB is the height of hypocrisy. The main Republican attack
on Medicare and the Affordable Care Act is that we cannot afford them.
House Republicans are proposing changes that would destroy Medicare
because they say taking care of our seniors just costs too much. Yet
today they will vote for a bill that eliminates one of Medicare's cost-
saving innovations and saddles Medicare with over $3 billion in
unnecessary costs. It's no wonder that the public holds Congress in so
little regard.
The Republican master plan for Medicare is to end the guarantee
coverage and shift more costs on to seniors and people with
disabilities. They don't hold down the costs; they simply shift them on
to seniors and disabled people. Under Medicare, they pay more for it
out of their own pockets. This is part of the Republican assault on
Medicare. It would repeal the backstop in Medicare that keeps Medicare
affordable for seniors.
I want to be clear about what the IPAB is and what it isn't. The
board is explicitly in statute prohibited from rationing. It also is
prohibited from making recommendations that increase costs to seniors
or cut benefits. IPAB also doesn't take away the role of Congress. IPAB
makes recommendations, but Congress can and should act on those
recommendations.
We hear a lot about these unelected bureaucrats. Let me tell you
that, around this place, there are a lot of elected bureaucrats. Here
is the fundamental difference between the Democratic approach to
Medicare and the Republican approach: Democrats in Congress are
committed to preserving Medicare and protecting seniors' benefits;
Republicans have proposed ending Medicare's guarantee of coverage so
they can pay for tax breaks for oil companies and millionaires. Let me
underscore that. They want to take money out of Medicare so they can
give more tax breaks to billionaires and oil companies.
Like some of my colleagues, I have concerns about some aspects of the
IPAB. I don't agree with the premise that we need IPAB to make Congress
do its job. But no one should think that the hyperbole of IPAB's
Republican critics--rationing, death panels, and faceless bureaucrats
pulling the plug on sick patients--represents reality. That came from
their propaganda word masters.
House Republicans are voting to repeal the Independent Payment
Advisory Board because they simply want to eliminate Medicare. They
want to provide vouchers instead of benefits. They want to shift costs
to the beneficiaries. They want to put Medicare into a death spiral and
leave insurance companies in charge of seniors' care. Then it would be
the insurance companies that could then ration care, cut benefits and,
according to the Congressional Budget Office, likely increase out-of-
pocket costs by $6,000.
Does anybody doubt insurance companies ration care? Try to get an
insurance policy if you have a previous medical condition. They won't
even cover you, or they will charge you so much you can't afford it. Is
that what we want, to let the insurance companies make these decisions
for our seniors and disabled people?
H.R. 5 is a partisan assault on Medicare and an assault on patients
who are injured by careless doctors and drug companies and an assault
on States' rights.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 5.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the chairman emeritus
of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Barton, the gentleman from
Texas.
(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. BARTON of Texas. I thank the distinguished chairman.
We have just heard an argument from one of the authors, if not the
chief author, of the new health care law. So it's understandable that
former Chairman Waxman would rise in indignant defense of his product
and opposed to this bill.
H.R. 5, the PATH bill, is in actuality a reasoned response to an
irrational attempt to socialize health care in the United States of
America. The Independent Payment Advisory Board, which this legislation
repeals, is an independent 15-member panel appointed by the President,
unless the President doesn't appoint it, in which case three of the
President's chief advisers become the board. And if they don't decide
to do it, then one person, the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
has the authority when this kicks in in 2014 to make all kinds of
decisions that directly impact health care in America.
I don't think, and a majority of my colleagues don't think, that
that's the way it should be done. So this bill in one paragraph--I
think on page 24--repeals that section. That is a good start.
[[Page H1455]]
It is not the end-all be-all, but it is a good start to regaining
control of health care by individuals and the marketplace.
{time} 1520
The other thing this bill does is it puts in a medical malpractice
reform that has been long overdue. The President, in his State of the
Union, said he was for medical malpractice reform, but I am told that
he has said he is not for this medical malpractice reform, just like he
is not against the Keystone pipeline, but he called Senators to oppose
it when it came up in the other body.
We need medical malpractice reform. Independent observers have said
that this bill, which Congressman Gingrey of Georgia is the original
sponsor of, would save $48 billion over, I think, a 10-year period if
enacted--$48 billion. That's real reform. It does not preempt States.
It allows the States to continue their medical malpractice laws that
they've already enacted.
So I ask that we vote for this piece of legislation.
And I thank the chairman and the subcommittee chairman and all of the
Members who have made it possible.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased at this time to yield 3
minutes to the distinguished ranking member and soon-to-be chairman of
the Health Subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).
Mr. PALLONE. I thank the gentleman from California.
I have a great deal of respect for my former chairman and colleague
from Texas, but as I listen to him, the problem is that it's always the
same: It's my way or the highway. And it's just very unfortunate,
because there have been many opportunities in the committee where we
could have worked together to come up with legislation on things like
malpractice reform and IPAB, but that's not what we get from the
Republican side of the aisle. They just constantly want to do their own
thing.
And as he said, the President may be for malpractice reform, but if
he's not for this malpractice reform, then he's a bad guy. And that's
the point: We need to get together. If we're ever going to accomplish
anything, we need to work together; and I don't see that happening on
the Republican side of the aisle today.
I am very disappointed in the process of considering H.R. 5. I am
disappointed and frustrated that my Republican colleagues had an
opportunity to bring to the floor a bill that I and some of my
Democratic colleagues supported, but what they decided to do instead is
to simply play political games, political games over and over again.
All sectors of the health care industry agree that the Independent
Payment Advisory Board, IPAB, should be repealed. I am the first one to
tell you how much I am opposed to IPAB. In fact, during the Energy and
Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health markup, I voted in favor of
its repeal. But, unfortunately, my Republican colleagues have no
interest in truly repealing IPAB. They only care about defacing the
Affordable Care Act and continuing their political game of repealing
the law piece by piece. How do I know that? Because they've decided to
pay for the IPAB repeal with H.R. 5, one of the most controversial and
historically partisan bills of the past decade.
We've been through this same debate. Every time, every year, H.R. 5,
on the floor again. Each year the Republicans have been in charge,
we're forced to consider identical legislation that contains the exact
same areas over which we remain divided. In fact, the Republicans
weren't even able to enact this bill into law when they had the
majorities in the House and Senate and the Presidency, and the reason
is because they have zero desire to solve the problems of this country.
All they are interested in accomplishing is a political message to take
home to their districts.
I have said again and again that I would work with my colleagues on
truly addressing malpractice reform, but those calls have gone
unanswered. Over the years, there has been little effort on the part of
Republicans to reach across the aisle and to work with Democrats on a
satisfactory solution to medical liability reform.
I do understand that medical malpractice and liability is a very real
problem for doctors in my home State and in the country, but H.R. 5 is
not the answer. Any true reform must take a balanced approach and
include protections for the legal rights of patients and be limited to
medical malpractice.
Today my vote on this package is a ``no'' vote on H.R. 5 alone. As I
have stated, it's too controversial and extreme in its current form.
Although it's described as a medical malpractice measure, H.R. 5
extends far beyond the field of malpractice liability.
I am just extremely disappointed. I am being honest in saying this. I
am very disappointed that the Republican leadership has robbed many
Democrats of their ability to vote cleanly on IPAB repeal and have,
instead, yet again, politicized this body.
When will you learn?
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from
North Carolina, the vice chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce
Committee, Mrs. Myrick.
Mrs. MYRICK. I thank the chairman.
Mr. Chairman, this is Washington, so we have to have an acronym for
everything up here. The IPAB isn't a new techie device but is an
example of one of the many misguided parts of the budget-busting health
care reform law.
What is this debate really about? We all know that Medicare is headed
toward financial catastrophe, and the health reform law only succeeded
in putting the program in a more precarious position. There is no easy
solution to this problem, but Republicans have put forward a plan that
would actually set the program on a healthy fiscal path again, without
hurting those who are already on the program.
Of course, because this is Washington, rather than having a hearty
debate, this proposal continues to be demagogued and derided. Instead,
the health reform bill gave us IPAB, an unaccountable board tasked with
limiting procedures and treatments in order to control costs. It's a
top-down, unconstitutional, ineffective, and inefficient way to solve
Medicare's fiscal problems. And if you think that this board won't make
recommendations to limit the use of expensive but life-sustaining
treatments, you haven't been paying attention.
But here's something that gets lost in this debate: IPAB doesn't just
apply to Medicare benefits for seniors who are on a government program.
First off, those of us who have been here for a while know that
private insurers tend to follow Medicare. We see it all the time. Once
Medicare changes coverage for a treatment, those decisions push private
payers to also move in that direction, because so much of our health
care system relies on Medicare's policies. The government already
controls so much of our health care sphere that inefficiencies abound.
If that weren't enough, starting in 2015, the IPAB can make decisions
about what private plans will cover. Yes, 15 people will be deciding
what private companies will be covering. That's what is fundamentally
wrong with the health care reform law, and we should repeal the whole
thing. But in the meantime, let's repeal this ill-conceived board and
address this country's medical malpractice problems while we're at it.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield to an important
member of our committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) for 2
minutes.
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. I thank my colleague, the ranking member on
our Energy and Commerce Committee.
I rise in opposition to this bill. I am not opposed to all of it; in
fact, I am a strong supporter of the repeal of the IPAB provisions.
However, we can't undermine Americans' rights in court through placing
arbitrary limits on malpractice cases. That's what this bill before us
does. We shouldn't solve a bad policy problem by implementing more bad
policy. We should be passing good legislation, not trying to pass
something that has no chance of becoming law, and that's what this bill
does.
The Affordable Care Act, the underlying statute that this bill is
amending, has had an enormous positive impact on the constituents I
represent, and the law hasn't totally taken effect yet. But it's
getting better. I was proud to support this landmark legislation as
part of the Energy and Commerce Committee and on the Health
Subcommittee.
[[Page H1456]]
Before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, my congressional
district had the largest percentage of uninsured of any district in our
country. We still have a lot of work to do, but things are getting
better. For the last 2 years, 53,000 children in my district can't lose
the security offered by health insurance due to preexisting conditions;
3,400 seniors have saved an average of $540 on prescription drugs;
9,000 young people now have health insurance that they didn't have
before the Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act is not perfect, but no bill is perfect. The
bill before us today is far from perfect. I support the repeal of IPAB.
I opposed IPAB in 2009 when it came up in our committee markup of the
Affordable Care Act. I do not believe a panel of outsiders appointed by
the President should take responsibility for what Congress needs to do
in making decisions on Medicare payment rates. That's part of our job
as Members of Congress. However, this bill has stepped too far; and I
want to the opportunity to vote on a freestanding IPAB repeal, but I
cannot support H.R. 5 because it's a bridge too far.
{time} 1530
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Stearns).
Mr. STEARNS. I thank the distinguished chairman.
This bill, contrary to what the gentleman from Texas said, is an
opportunity for him to vote to not let bureaucrats make the decision.
He has a chance to do this. I'm a little surprised why he's saying he's
against the bill. Of course, I think many of us are going to repeat the
same arguments.
The fundamental point is that this bill will save almost $50 billion
over 10 years. How many people on this side don't want to save money? I
think everybody on both sides of the aisle would like to save money. So
this is stopping defensive medicine and untold amount of litigation by
passing this bill. This could effectively create lower premiums for
everybody and lower the cost of health care.
This bill would eliminate, as pointed out even by the gentleman from
Texas, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, given the colloquial
name of IPAB. Just this morning, as chairman of the Oversight and
Investigation Committee, we held a hearing on the President's failed
health care law. It's clear that countless pages of regulation, rules,
and requirements for ObamaCare have been incredibly confusing. When we
had this hearing, it was brought up clearly that this bill, over 2
years old, has given almost 1,700 waivers to entities who cannot comply
with this health care bill.
So my constituents and individuals throughout this country view these
massive new rules and regulations as increasing interference by the
Federal Government into their lives. And, obviously, business
communities are seeking waivers. Seventeen hundred entities are asking
for waivers because they can't comply. It creates uncertainty in the
marketplace.
So for all these reasons we must pass this bill. In fact, IPAB is SGR
on steroids. Rather than fixing the SGR problem in the health care law,
Democrats are happy to allow continued cuts to physician payments and
then double down on further cuts through IPAB. This is a group of 15
unelected bureaucrats who would save Medicare by making draconian cuts
to provider payments. Democrats wanted to control the future cost of
Medicare by giving unelected, bureaucrats the power to cut payments to
hospitals and to our doctors.
If Democrats were serious, they would support this bill. Nancy
Pelosi, the former Speaker and minority leader said, ``We have to pass
this bill so you can find out what's in it.'' Remember that quote?
I am determined to make sure we don't have to fully implement the
bill so we can see what it costs.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I'm always amused when I hear people talk
about government interference in our lives. If people think Medicare is
an unjust government interference in their lives, they can forgo their
Medicare, but I don't know too many people who would like to do that.
What the Republicans are proposing is to take that Medicare away from
them and turn it over to private insurance. Put that to a vote. I don't
think the American people would support that either.
I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to a very important member on our
committee, especially the Health Committee, the Representative from the
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen).
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank you for yielding.
Mr. Chair, I rise today during a time when we should all be
celebrating the many great successes of the Affordable Care Act on its
second-year anniversary. Democrats have rightly been applauding the
health and economic benefits of affordable, reliable access to high-
quality health care services brought about by that landmark law. Not so
with our Republican colleagues, who choose to ignore or misrepresent
the many benefits millions of people have been enjoying because of the
Affordable Care Act.
Then comes this disastrous marriage between two bills--one that will
repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board--which some Democrats
like myself support--and the other malpractice bill, which I strongly
oppose because it will trample States' rights, providing extraordinary
protections for drug and medical device and health insurance companies,
making it nearly impossible for those harmed to seek and achieve
justice.
I support the IPAB repeal because in its current form it will not
achieve significant savings or ensure quality access to health care
under Medicare. Additionally, as a physician who practiced for more
than two decades, I'm opposed to its broad authority to make
recommendations that would detrimentally affect health care providers
and eventually Medicare beneficiaries. However, attaching at the very
last minute a medical malpractice bill that provides protection to
every entity involved in medical malpractice and health care lawsuits
except the victim is just plain wrong.
And, no pun intended, but adding insult to injury is the fact that
their medical malpractice bill is completely outdated. The bill was
designed more than two decades ago. Back then we did have challenges
with malpractice insurance, but today those challenges have been
addressed. Today, we do not have a malpractice insurance crisis in this
country.
I strongly oppose H.R. 5, and encourage my friends on the other side
of the aisle in the future, if it's more than just political rhetoric,
to quit while they're ahead.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chair, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished vice chairman of the Health Subcommittee, the gentleman
from Texas, Dr. Burgess.
Mr. BURGESS. I thank the chairman for the recognition.
Mr. Chairman, I will focus my remarks on the Independent Payment
Advisory Board because it encompasses all that is wrong with the
Affordable Care Act. The health law itself contains policies that will
disrupt the practice of medicine. Along with the many excesses and
constrictions within the law, the Independent Payment Advisory Board
represents the very worst of the worst of what will happen.
As a physician, as a Member of Congress, as a father, as a husband,
as a patient in his sixties, I am offended by the Independent Payment
Advisory Board. This board is not accountable to any constituency, and
it exists only to cut provider payments to fit a mathematically created
target. The board throws the government into the middle of what should
be a sacred relationship between the doctor and the patient. The doctor
and the patient should have the power to influence prices and guide
care, not this board.
Beyond controlling Medicare, the Independent Payment Advisory Board's
rationing edicts will serve as a benchmark for private insurance
carriers' own payment changes. Although Mr. Waxman bemoaned the fact
that private insurance would be part of Medicare, this thing will
actually dictate the behavior of private insurances in this country.
The board will have far-reaching implications beyond Medicare for our
Nation's doctors. Because of the limitations on what the control board
can cut, the majority of spending reductions will come from cuts to
part B, the doctors' fees. Doctors will become increasingly unable to
provide the
[[Page H1457]]
services that the board has decided are not valuable.
Is the answer to squeeze out doctors? Sounds like rationing to me.
So which sounds like the better--Medicare bankruptcy and an unelected
board deciding the care of Medicare beneficiaries or doctors and
patients deciding and defending the right of the care that they
receive?
The future of American health care should not be left up to this
board, to this panel. It's an aloof arbiter of health care for seniors
who depend on Medicare. I support the repeal of the Independent Payment
Advisory Board.
I'll just leave you with a quote from the American Medical
Association:
It puts our health policy and payment decisions in the
hands of an independent body with no accountability. Major
changes in the Medicare program should be decided by elected
officials.
The American Medical Association.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my
colleague from California, one of the key people in the authorship of
the Affordable Care Act, George Miller.
Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Chair, I came to Congress in 1975. Since that time, I've been
involved in the debate over national health reform proposals.
Throughout these debates, lawmakers struggled with how to control costs
without sacrificing quality care. Unfortunately, for decades, Congress
chose to kick the can down the road while costs continue to climb and
to soar. This trend ended with Affordable Care Act.
For the first time, Congress put in place specific and identifiable
measures that will make our health care system more transparent and
efficient. This includes the creation of the Independent Payment
Advisory Board. This board will be a backstop to ensure that Federal
health programs operate efficiently and effectively for both seniors
and taxpayers. We need to give these innovations a chance to work.
Because without these innovations, there's little hope to get health
care costs under control.
Five hundred thirty-five Members of Congress cannot be nor should
they be the doctors who think they know best of the practice of every
medical field. Five hundred thirty-five Members of Congress are not
immune to special interests that have a financial stake in the
decisions that are made--not necessarily in the best interest of the
seniors, the taxpayers, or the delivery of medicine in this country,
but perhaps in the best interest of their companies. That's why the
Affordable Act created an independent board of health experts to make
the recommendations to improve the system. It does not usurp the role
of Congress. It simply acts as a fail-safe in case government spending
exceeds benchmarks. Under the law, doctors will retain full authority
to recommend the treatments they think are best for patients. The law
also prohibits recommendations that would ration care, change premiums,
or reduce Medicare benefits.
In short, this independent board is about strengthening Medicare with
evidence-based decisionmaking. Without innovative reforms like the
board, Medicare's future will be put in jeopardy. Kicking this can down
the road any further will only bolster those who seek to kill Medicare.
We must strengthen Medicare, not end the Medicare guarantee.
The Affordable Care Act strengthened Medicare. It extended the life
of the trust fund and has already lowered costs for millions of
seniors. However, without innovation, our current system will be
unsustainable for our Nation's families, businesses, and taxpayers.
The Republican plan to end the Medicare guarantee is no alternative.
Innovation is the alternative. I urge my colleagues to support the
Independent Payment Advisory Board and reject this legislation.
{time} 1540
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, I would much rather hear from some of our
doctor friends who are speaking so eloquently. I have another doctor, a
member of the Health Subcommittee, from Pennsylvania. I yield 2 minutes
to the distinguished gentleman, Dr. Tim Murphy.
Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman.
Last decade, when I was a State senator of Pennsylvania, I took on
HMOs and plans that made decisions by accountants and MBAs and not MDs.
It was important to do that because we found that doctors could not
make decisions even though they were supposedly empowered to do that.
Instead, there were boards that would make decisions for them.
And now here we are with deja vu all over again. We're about to have
15 Presidential appointees--even under the advice of both Chambers of
Congress--none of whom are involved with medicine, making decisions
with regard to who makes decisions for you in terms of what gets paid
and how much gets paid to doctors and hospitals. But as it goes
through, what happens if there's a decision that says it's not going to
be covered? Can you call the board, itself? No. Can your doctor call
the board? No. Can your hospital call the board? No. Can your Member of
Congress call the board? No. But, in fact, it would take an act of
Congress passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President to
override them.
So who is this panel, and what decisions can they make? By law, it's
people who are involved with finance, economics, hospital
administration, reimbursements, some physicians, health professionals,
pharmacy benefit managers, employers, people involved with outcome
research and medical health services and economics.
What's missing from that is any requirement that it might be people
who have knowledge of such things as oncology, endocrinology,
pediatrics, obstetrics, geriatric medicine, family medicine and
surgery, and the list goes on and on. So, in other words, what's going
to happen here is not only if you like your doctor you may not be able
to keep him or her, but if your doctor doesn't like what's going to be
covered, there is nothing he or she can do about that. This is not the
practice of medicine; this is the practice of government overtaking
medicine.
While Americans were begging for us to fix a broken system, what they
got was half a trillion in new taxes, half a trillion in Medicare cuts,
trillions in new costs, and massive mandates--1,978 new
responsibilities of the Secretary of Health and 150 boards, panels, and
commissions yet to be appointed. And we don't know what's going to
happen. We need to return health care to where it really is going to be
fixed.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute.
We're talking about the Independent Payment Advisory Board--advisory
board.
The appointed membership of the Board shall include
physicians and other health professionals, experts in the
area of pharmaco-economics or prescription drug benefit
programs, employers, third-party payers, individuals skilled
in the conduct and interpretation of biomedical, health
services.
Dot, dot, dot. These are people who will give us some
recommendations, but they can't give us recommendations to take away
services. They can't give us a recommendation to impose more costs on
the Medicare beneficiaries. And when they give us their
recommendations, Congress can act on it. And if we don't like it, we
can change them.
I think we have the Republicans trying to scare people. They come in
and say ``Medicare costs too much.'' Well, if it costs too much, that's
why we need this backup, to be sure that we're holding down costs. They
say, ``it costs too much and therefore let's ends it.'' That doesn't
make any sense. I think Americans should not be fooled.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to now yield 3 minutes to my colleague
from California, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health of
the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Stark.
(Mr. STARK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. STARK. I want to thank Mr. Waxman for yielding to me at this
time.
I rise in opposition to H.R. 5, brought to the floor by my Republican
colleagues. It does two things. It repeals IPAB as created in the
Affordable Care Act, and it enacts a medical malpractice reform long
sought by my Republican friends as a way to protect pharmaceutical
companies, medical device companies, and health care providers from any
liability or full liability when they cause harm or death.
[[Page H1458]]
The medical malpractice part of this bill is so bad that the
California Medical Association rejects the bill and says to vote ``no''
unless they had a decent medical malpractice reform part in it. And
when the doctors will reject medical malpractice reform issues, you
know it's got to be bad.
This extreme proposal is really not needed. I happen to agree with
the part of the bill that repeals IPAB. We refused to include it in the
House version of health reform. And Congress has always stepped in in
its congressional manner to strengthen Medicare's finances when needed,
and I see no need for us to relinquish that duty. We only have to look
at the health reform law. It has extended solvency; it has slowed
spending growth; it has lowered beneficiary costs; it has improved
benefits, modernized the delivery system, created new fraud-fighting
tools. We've done a good job. In fact, the CBO projects that IPAB won't
even be triggered until the next 10 years, proving we've already done
our job here in Congress of strengthening Medicare's finances.
Today's Republican support to repeal IPAB isn't a sincere interest in
providing Medicare for all. They still want to give us an unfunded or
underfunded voucher, slash and burn funding. And despite my opposition
to IPAB, it's far less dangerous to Medicare than the Republican
voucher plan put forth in the House Republican budget this week. IPAB
doesn't undermine Medicare's guaranteed benefits and its ability to
reduce Medicare spending. It has guardrails to prevent it. It doesn't
permit costs to come from reducing Medicare and increasing costs on
beneficiaries. It prohibits rationing, and it has annual limits on the
cuts. The Republican voucher plan has none of these protections.
The Republicans are continuing their march begun by Newt Gingrich to
have Medicare ``wither on the vine.'' I urge my colleagues to vote
``no'' on yet another political stunt, which really, thankfully, is not
destined to become law at this time.
Sacramento, CA, Mar. 15, 2012.
RE. H.R. 5 Protecting Access to Healthcare Act.
CMA Position. Oppose Unless Amended.
Hon. John Boehner,
Speaker, House of Representatives,
Washington, DC
Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
Minority Leader, House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi: The California
Medical Association has adopted a position of Oppose Unless
Amended on H.R. 5 the ``Protecting Access to Healthcare
Act.'' While we strongly support the repeal of the Medicare
Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and appreciate the
state preemption of medical liability laws that will preserve
California's successful MICRA law, we have serious concerns
with two additional medical liability provisions that will
expose California physicians to even greater liability
despite the bill's stated legislative intent to reduce health
care costs and insurance premiums.
Support Repeal of the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board
(IPAB)
CMA strongly opposes the Medicare Independent Payment
Advisory Board (IPAB) which thwarts Congress' stewardship of
the Medicare program and gives fifteen unaccountable
individuals the power to make significant cuts to Medicare.
We believe it is Congress' responsibility to ensure the
Medicare program meets the needs of their communities. The
IPAB is mandated to make draconian cuts if Medicare spending
exceeds unrealistic budget targets in 2014. While we
appreciate the necessity to control the growth in health care
spending, the IPAB mandate does not leave room to actually
reform the program, particularly because hospitals and other
providers are exempt from the cuts until 2020. It
disproportionately harms physicians who are already
challenged to provide care to Medicare patients with limited
resources. As you know, physicians are facing large Medicare
SGR payment cuts over the next decade as well.
These measures are already forcing more California
physicians to limit the number of Medicare patients they can
accept. If additional cuts take effect, physicians will be
forced to leave the program--harming timely access to quality
care for California's seniors and military families.
The IPAB was not part of the House Health Care Reform bill
because most of the leaders in the California delegation
opposed it. Please continue to stand against an IPAB that
takes important decisions out of your hands.
Medical Liability: Oppose Unless Amended
For the last several decades, California's medical
liability law--MICRA--has successfully protected patients and
physicians. It has kept medical liability insurance
affordable and thus, protected access to care for California
patients while reducing health care costs. CMA appreciates
the provisions in H.R. 5 that allow state preemption and the
preservation of California's important MICRA law. While we
agree with the intent of H.R. 5--to provide MICRA-like
protections for physicians in other states--we have serious
concerns with two provisions that will increase physician
liability costs not only in California but across the
country. We believe these provisions are inconsistent with
the stated intent of the legislation to reduce insurance
premiums and overall health care costs.
1. Fair Share Rule
California has a joint and several liability law that
governs economic damages and allows claimants to recover the
full amount of economic damages from any defendant. The Fair
Share Rule in H.R. 5 will preempt California's law and put
full recovery by injured patients at risk. As written, the
Fair Share Rule will dramatically increase the potential for
physicians to face enforcement proceedings against their
personal assets. This will force physicians to purchase
increased medical professional liability insurance coverage,
which will significantly increase liability premiums in
California for physicians.
Therefore, CMA requests the following amendment that would
allow states with joint and several liability laws to
maintain those important laws.
Page 23, line 4 Add: (b) Protection of States' Rights and
Other Laws.
(1) Any issue that is not governed by any provision of law
established by or under this title (including State standards
of negligence) shall be governed by otherwise applicable
State or Federal law.
(2) This title shall not preempt or supersede any State or
Federal law that imposes greater procedural or substantive
protections for health care providers and health care
organizations from liability, loss, or damages than those
provide by this title or create a cause of action or any
State law that governs the allocation or recovery of damages
among joint tort feasors.
2. No Punitive Damages for Medical Products and Devices
that Comply with FDA Standards
The CMA has serious concerns with granting complete
immunity from punitive damages to medical product and device
manufacturers, distributors and suppliers. We believe this
will force plaintiffs to look only to physicians and other
providers to seek relief and will significantly increase
physician exposure and liability costs. CMA believes that the
United States Supreme Court decision on this issue in Levine
v Wyeth was correct and should remain the law because the
alleged benefits of providing immunity to pharmaceuticals
companies through preemption are far outweighed by the harm
to patient care and physicians.
Therefore. CMA urges that subdivision (c) of Section 106 of
Title I of the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act be
stricken in its entirety.
At the very least, if Title I, Section 106(c) remains in
the bill, the CMA requests the following amendments to
protect physicians from punitive damages liability that would
otherwise be that of the manufacturers and suppliers of
medical products and devices.
Page 10, line 14: (c) No punitive damages for products that
comply with FDA standards
(1) In General (A) No punitive damages may be awarded
against the manufacturer, distributor, or prescriber of a
medical product, or a supplier of any component or raw
material of such medical products, based on a claim that such
product caused the claimant's harm where--
Page 16. Lines 24 25: ``. . . or the manufacturer,
distributor supplier, marketer, promoter, [or] seller, or
prescriber of a medical product, . . .''
Page 17, Lines 15 16: ``. . . or the manufacturer,
distributor supplier, marketer, promoter, [or] seller, or
prescriber of a medical product, . . .''
Page 17, Line 25: ``44. . . or the manufacturer,
distributor supplier, marketer, promoter, [or] seller, or
prescriber of a medical product, . . .''
The CMA urges you to accept these important amendments. We
appreciate the efforts to repeal the IPAB, to protect
California's MICRA law with a state preemption, and to bring
liability relief and lower health care costs to the rest of
the nation.
Thank you for this important work.
Sincerely,
James T. Hay, MD,
President.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, I'd just like to take 30 seconds to respond
to the distinguished ranking member before I yield to Mr. Bass.
He mentioned that this so-called expert panel could have physicians
and health care professionals. I refer him to section 3403(g) of PPACA
on page 423, specifically on the majority for the panel. There's a
specific prohibition that you can't have a majority of health care
providers or physicians on IPAB. And as far as these being
recommendations, you can't appeal; you can't sue this board. Only with
three-fifths vote in both Chambers with commensurate cuts can you
overturn their recommendation.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Bass).
[[Page H1459]]
Mr. BASS of New Hampshire. I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for
yielding to me.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the bill consisting of two
previous bills--tort law reform and a repeal of the Independent Payment
Advisory Board.
I wasn't here when the Obama health care, the Affordable Care Act
law, was passed. In listening to the debate over the last half hour,
you would have thought that nobody supported this bill. Of all the
speakers we've had, I think three have admitted they supported it then,
and now you'd think that it never existed. Well, any agency that's
scored by CBO to save $3.1 billion is not going to do it by providing
more services for seniors or innovation or preservation. It's going to
do it by cutting payments to providers or by cutting services to
beneficiaries. It's as simple as that.
This is the beginning of, perhaps, the core of what represents a
Federal Government takeover of health care services in this country.
Sure, there may be a process whereby recommendations could go to the
Congress; but instead of the relationship being between a patient and a
doctor, it is going to be governed more by a Federal bureaucracy that
will make these decisions.
I urge support of the pending bill, H.R. 5.
{time} 1550
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute.
We hear these things now, but we heard them in 1965 when Medicare was
being proposed--socialized medicine, an unfair government intrusion
into our lives.
Medicare is a popular, successful program. I support it. But the
Republicans didn't support it then, and they don't support it now.
The Affordable Care Act is an excellent bill. I proudly voted for it
because as a result of that legislation we're already seeing young
people being able to get insurance up to 26 years of age on their
parents' policies. We're already seeing seniors getting help to pay for
their prescription drugs. We are seeing insurance companies prohibited
from the abuses where they put lifetime limits, and they're going to be
stopped from denying people health insurance because of preexisting
medical conditions. This is good, and we're going to get even more
benefits for over 30 million Americans when the bill is fully in place.
It's a good bill. The Republicans would like to repeal it. But let's
not forget, they didn't want Medicare in the first place.
Mr. Chairman, now that I've used my minute, I would like to yield 3
minutes to a member of our committee from the State of Illinois (Ms.
Schakowsky), who has been very involved in helping seniors on all of
these programs, whether it's Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid.
She is very knowledgeable and highly respected--a little shorter than
the podium, but I'm pleased to yield to her.
(Ms. SCHAKOWSKY asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I thank the gentleman very much for yielding to me.
I hope the American people understand what's going on here today.
H.R. 5 represents another in a long line of partisan political attacks
on the Affordable Care Act.
Since its passage 2 years ago, this historic law has been under
attack. Today's bill would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory
Board. The Affordable Care Act is replete with provisions to lower
Medicare costs, from unprecedented tools to fight fraud to efficiency
reforms. The IPAB is a backstop to those provisions.
What the Affordable Care Act does not do--and what the IPAB is
prohibited from doing--is increase costs to seniors and people with
disabilities or cut benefits. That may be why my Republican colleagues
don't like it. If you look at their proposal to take away the Medicare
guarantee and turn it into a voucher program, you can see why. Instead
of lowering costs for everyone as the Affordable Care Act does, the
Republican plan just shifts costs onto the backs of those who can least
afford it--seniors, disabled people, and their families. These are the
same people who are harmed by the tort-reform provisions of H.R. 5--
Federal intrusion coupled with disregard for injured consumers.
Instead of working to improve health care quality, as the Affordable
Care Act does, H.R. 5 simply restricts the rights of patients harmed by
dangerous drug companies, nursing homes, medical device manufacturers,
doctors, and hospitals.
I am especially opposed to arbitrary caps on noneconomic damages.
Economic damages provide compensation for lost wages. Noneconomic
damages provide compensation for injuries that are just as real and
damaging, injuries liking excruciating pain, disfigurement, loss of a
spouse or a grandparent, inability to bear children. These arbitrary
caps are particularly discriminatory for seniors and children who don't
have lost wages and are not worth much.
H.R. 5--higher costs to seniors and disabled people and fewer legal
rights for injured consumers. It's a bad deal on both counts.
I hope the American people understand what is going on here today.
H.R. 5 represents another in a long line of partisan political attacks
on the Affordable Care Act.
Yesterday, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle released
their FY 2013 budget proposal. Once again they propose to repeal the
Affordable Care Act and once again they propose to end the Medicare
guarantee.
I find it ironic that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
criticize the Medicare program because they claim cost growth is out of
control and the program is going bankrupt.
The Medicare provisions of the Affordable Care Act are replete with
provisions from cutting fraud to improving the efficiency of health
care delivery that will lower costs--without shifting costs to seniors
and people with disabilities or cutting the Medicare guarantee. The
Independent Payment Advisory Board is designed as a backstop to those
provisions--which CB0 tells us will be effective enough that we will
not even need IPAB for the next decade.
And, here we are today set to consider legislation to repeal the
Independent Payment Advisory Board not because my colleagues on the
other side of the aisle have a better idea but because they want to get
rid of the entire Affordable Care Act and eliminate Medicare.
If IPAB has to act, the Affordable Care Act explicitly states that it
can only make recommendations regarding Medicare and cannot make
recommendations that would ration care, raise premiums, increase cost-
sharing, restrict benefits or modify eligibility. IPAB is also supposed
to consider the effect of its recommendations on Medicare solvency,
quality and access to care, the effect on changes in payments to
providers, and the impact on those dually eligible for Medicare and
Medicaid.
There are certainly ways to improve IPAB and the Affordable Care
Act--but the bill before us doesn't make improvements--it just repeals.
I wish my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would be honest
with seniors, people with disabilities and the American public about
their replacement plan.
What exactly is the Republican alternative? My colleagues on the
other side of the aisle have talked a lot about Medicare costs and
sustainability, but what is their plan? If the alternative is anything
like the proposals included in the Republican budget--which shifts
costs to seniors and empowers insurance companies--then I choose IPAB.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have strategically
paired IPAB repeal with medical malpractice reform.
We do have a medical malpractice crisis in this country--but it is
not that injured consumers are suing too much--in fact, the number of
suits has declined. It is not that injured consumers are receiving
exorbitant compensation--in fact, the size of settlements and awards
have been stable--tracking the rate of medical inflation.
The crisis we are facing in America is that too many patients are the
victims of medical errors and too many good doctors are being
overcharged by private insurers. We cannot make this a fight between
doctors and trial lawyers and lose sight of the fact that too many
Americans will be affected by malpractice. Their lives and the lives of
their families will never be the same. It is their interests that we
must protect.
One in three patients admitted to a hospital experiences an ``adverse
event''--they get the wrong prescription, receive the wrong surgical
procedure, acquire an infection. But this goes far beyond preventable
medical injuries in hospitals. This legislation is so broadly drafted
that it will apply to medical devices, pharmaceutical products, nursing
homes and for-profit health insurers.
We haven't any assurance that this bill will reduce the incidence of
medical malpractice--nor has anyone given us any assurance that it will
lower medical liability premiums. But one thing is certain--it will
trample on states' rights and take away long-standing civil justice
[[Page H1460]]
rights. Taking away patient rights does not improve the quality of our
health care system--it just leaves injured consumers without recourse.
I especially oppose arbitrary caps on non-economic damages and other
restrictions on the rights of medical malpractice victims to seek
accountability and compensation for their injuries. We are going to
hear from proponents of H.R. 5 that these caps are not harmful because
economic costs--medical bills and lost wages--are left uncapped.
But what about injuries that are just as painful but less
quantifiable--the inability to bear children, the loss of a spouse or
child or grandparent, excruciating pain, permanent and severe
disfigurement.
Non-economic damages compensate injured victims for very real
injuries--and those who suffer those injuries deserve their full and
fair day in court.
H.R. 5 is an attack on victims who, for the rest of their lives, will
suffer as a result of negligence and malpractice. We should not add to
their pain by denying them their legal rights.
I urge my colleagues to reject H.R. 50.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time I yield 1 minute to another
distinguished member of the Health Subcommittee, the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie).
Mr. GUTHRIE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I rise today in support of H.R. 5, legislation to repeal the IPAB and
make critical reforms to our medical liability system.
The IPAB was created in the health care law as a way to contain
growing costs, but the reality is those savings will likely be found by
removing health care decisions from patients and doctors and placing
them in the hands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.
H.R. 5 also addresses the critical issue of medical liability reform.
Our current tort system is driving doctors out of the practice of
medicine. Those who remain are forced to practice defensive medicine,
further increasing health care costs.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that medical-liability
reform will save hardworking taxpayers over $40 billion. H.R. 5 makes
two commonsense reforms to protect doctors and patients. I urge my
colleagues to support the bill.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire how much time each side has.
The Acting CHAIR (Mr. Hastings of Washington). The gentleman from
California has 36 minutes remaining, and the gentleman from
Pennsylvania has 44 minutes remaining.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, at this time I'd yield 5 of our 36 minutes
to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Braley).
Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Chairman, here we go again. My conservative friends are once more
trying to take away rights of American citizens that are as old as the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. They're doing it by
talking about taking away the rights of patients without ever
mentioning the words ``patient safety.''
This issue has been with us for a long time. In fact, about 10 years
ago, the highly regarded Institutes of Medicine did three studies on
the issue of patient safety and the alarming cost it adds to our
overall health care delivery system.
The first of their studies was called ``To Err is Human: Building a
Safer Health System.'' On this cover it says: ``First, Do No Harm.''
The study concluded that every year up to 98,000 people die in this
country due to preventable medical errors. It also talked in this study
about the cost of those medical errors. It estimated that the cost of
failing to stop these preventable medical errors is between $17 billion
and $29 billion a year. Now, if you multiply that over the 10 years of
the Affordable Care Act, that means if we eliminated those errors, we
would save $170 to $290 billion a year.
So do we focus on patient safety and preventing medical errors? No,
we focus on taking away the rights of the most severely injured.
Because it's what caps on damages do, they penalize those with the most
egregious injuries and those who have no earning capacity. So who are
those people? They're seniors, they're children, and they are stay-at-
home mothers. They're the ones most severely penalized when you take
away rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of
Independence. So I oppose this bill in the name of the Tea Party, not
just the current Tea Party, but the original Tea Party, which was
founded in opposition to taxation without representation.
If you go to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, you will
see that grievance against King George listed. Right below it in the
Declaration of Independence is this grievance, that he has taken away
the right to trial by jury. That right was so important, ladies and
gentlemen, that it was embedded in the Seventh Amendment to the Bill of
Rights. It says very clearly that in suits at common law, which is what
a medical negligence claim is, the jury gets to decide all questions of
fact and no one else. Well, one of the most important questions of fact
in a jury trial is the issue of damages. My friends are trying to take
away that right from the jury--the very same people who elected us to
Congress--because they apparently think that Congress knows more than
the people who sent us here, those who go into jury boxes all over this
country in your State and listen to the actual facts of the case before
deciding what's fair, including the all-important issue of what are
fair and reasonable damages.
So they're talking a lot today about defensive medicine. I want to
tell you about the myth of defensive medicine. Every time a health care
provider submits a fee-for-services, they represent that that medical
procedure or that medical test was medically necessary. If they don't
make that representation, they don't get paid. Well, guess what, folks?
If something is performed and billed as ``medically necessary,'' that,
by definition, is not defensive medicine, because defensive medicine is
when you're doing something that's not medically necessary to protect
yourself from litigation. So you can't have it both ways. You can't
take the money and claim you are practicing defensive medicine.
{time} 1600
We also heard about the myth of setting these caps 30 years ago and
never adjusting them for inflation. They always want to talk about the
California bill that was passed in the mid-seventies and impose the
very same cap in this bill, $250,000.
What they don't tell you is, if you adjust that cap based on the rate
of medical inflation over that same period of time, the cap would now
be worth almost $2 million and that, if you reduce that $250,000 cap to
present value, those people in today's dollars are only getting the
equivalent of $64,000, no matter how serious their injury is.
That's why I oppose this legislation, and that's why people who
believe in the Constitution and in the States' rights, under the 10th
Amendment, to decide what their citizens will receive as justice should
be outraged that this bill is on the floor today.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), another valued member of the
Health Subcommittee.
Mr. LANCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 5 that
combines the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board with
significant medical malpractice reforms that will help reduce health
care costs and preserve patients' access to medical care.
Today marks the 2-year anniversary of the House passage of the
President's health care law. During that debate 2 years ago, I joined
Members from both sides of the aisle in calling on the President to
address one of the drivers of the high cost of health care by reforming
the current medical liability system. Unfortunately, the President's
health care bill passed the House on March 21, 2010, absent any real or
meaningful medical liability reform.
The new law did include the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or
IPAB, and this cost-control board, made up of 15 unelected and, might I
add, unconfirmed officials, has the power to make major cost-cutting
decisions about Medicare, with little oversight or accountability.
The IPAB has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats, and
its repeal is supported by nearly 400 groups representing patients,
doctors, and employers.
Today, on the 2-year anniversary of the House passage of the health
care law, we have an opportunity to move to the future and enact real
health care
[[Page H1461]]
reform that will help bring down health care costs that are escalating
at unsustainable rates while, at the same time, protecting needed care
for our senior citizens.
As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I am pleased
to have the opportunity to work on this important legislation, and I
urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 5.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, another distinguished member of
the Health Subcommittee.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for
yielding. And, of course, I stand in strong support of H.R. 5, the PATH
Act, having authored half of the legislation, that is, the HEALTH Act,
the medical liability reform act.
But I'm also strongly in favor of repeal of IPAB, the Independent
Payment Advisory Board created under ObamaCare. We know and our
colleagues on the other side of the aisle, many of them, know that this
is the most egregious part of this 2,700-page piece of legislation,
which is now the law of the land. But what it is, Mr. Chairman, IPAB,
is their way of saving Medicare.
I'll ask them time after time: What is your plan to save Medicare?
They have no answers. All they want to do is continue to criticize our
side of the aisle when we have meaningful, thoughtful plans to save and
protect and strengthen, not just for these current recipients under the
Medicare program, those who are seniors, those who are disabled, but
also our children and our grandchildren.
What do we get from this side of the aisle, from the Democratic side?
We get IPAB.
The language says no rationing, yet the provisions call for cutting
reimbursements to providers; and eventually, without question, just as
it has in Canada and the UK, Mr. Chairman, that leads to the denial of
care. If that's not rationing, I don't know what it is.
Let me, in the remaining part of my time, speak a little bit in
regard to H.R. 5, the HEALTH Act, the medical liability reform act.
The gentleman from Iowa, the trial attorney, was just up here trying
to imply that we would take away a person's right to a redress of their
grievances if they had been injured by a medical provider or a health
care facility because of practice below the standard of care.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. PITTS. I yield the gentleman another 1 minute.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. And I thank the gentleman.
The gentleman from Iowa knows, in fact, that that is absolutely not
true.
What we do in this HEALTH Act is limit the awards for so-called pain
and suffering at $250,000. And, Mr. Chairman, indeed, a number of
States, after California enacted this law 35 years ago--Texas, Florida,
my own State of Georgia--have enacted caps higher than that, and, no
doubt, other States will do so in the future, because this bill
specifically says--and it's called the flex caps--that if a State wants
to enact a limit on noneconomics of $1 million and have it applicable
to multiple defendants, they can do that. They have the right to do
that. And in regard to the injury to a patient, there are no caps
whatsoever. There are still suits that are awarded to injured patients
that are in the millions of dollars.
So the gentleman from Iowa was totally disingenuous in what he was
trying to explain--a very smooth talking, very convincing lawyer.
That's what we expect.
But we want to end frivolous lawsuits so that those who are truly
injured get their day in court, and that's what this bill does.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute.
I thank the gentleman, who is a physician, for his comments.
He said he wants to save Medicare. He said the Republicans want to
save Medicare. They want to save Medicare, but their budget proposal
would end Medicare.
Let's just understand, those who are on Medicare know they can go to
the doctor or the hospital or other health care provider and Medicare
will pay. Under the Republican proposal, they'd be given a voucher and
told to go buy a private insurance policy, as much as they could afford
by adding additional money. To save it, they want to end it.
And we hear the statement, so-called pain and suffering. For people
who are living their lives with constant pain and suffering from a
medical malpractice problem, it's not so-called to them. It's a real,
terrible situation that they have to live with.
I think that, because one of our speakers happens to be a trial
lawyer, I want to point out that the past speaker is a medical
physician, as if that should make a difference. Let's base our
arguments on the points that are made.
I, at this point, want to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Vermont (Mr. Welch), an important Member whom we hope will come back to
our committee in the very near future.
Mr. WELCH. I thank the gentleman.
In Vermont, we faced the challenge that we face in this Nation: We
want to have access to health care, and we want it to be affordable.
When we had legislation, the Democrats were pushing access. The
Republican Governor was concerned about cost. We sat down and realized
we're both right. If Democrats want to achieve the goal of access to
health care for everybody, we have to control cost. Our Republican
Governor was right. We worked to do that. This Congress has failed to
do that.
Health care costs are rising beyond our ability to pay. Whether it's
the taxpayer, whether it's the business that's paying the premiums,
whether it's an individual who is self-pay, you cannot have health care
costs rising at 6.5 percent a year, as they have for the past 10 years,
higher than the rate of inflation, profits, or the economic growth. It
can't be sustained. IPAB is a tool to help us control health care
costs. We have to do that for our taxpayers, for our employers and for
our citizens.
{time} 1610
It's advisory. These 15 people who have experience in economics and
in medicine will look at data, will look at information. What's there
to fear in their doing that? They'll make recommendations to Congress.
Congress will retain the right to have the final say as to whether
these recommendations will work or not or if we want to substitute
something else. That makes sense.
The alternative is what has been put forward to essentially shift the
burden of rising health care costs onto seniors and citizens by turning
Medicare into a voucher. It would cap what the taxpayer would pay by
exempting this Congress from making reforms in how we deliver care that
could result in costs coming down and simply saying to seniors on
Medicare that if costs go up 6.5 percent a year, another 6.5 percent--
you know what, folks?--you are on your own. Figure out how to pay for
it. Congress is AWOL on this.
So to the extent that we claim we want access but we won't control
costs and take steps that are required to make health care spending
sustainable, we're shirking our responsibility. IPAB is not the answer,
but it's a good tool.
To reject it and instead replace it with a voucher system where the
full burden of runaway health care costs are simply imposed on seniors
is the wrong way to go in a continuation of Congress ducking its
responsibility for the reforms in the health care system that our
citizens need and deserve.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased at this time to yield 3 minutes
to one of our leaders, the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Hensarling).
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, regrettably the President's policies
have failed and continue to harm our economy.
We were told if we would pass the stimulus plan, unemployment would
never exceed 8 percent, and instead it's exceeded 8 percent for 37
straight months. We were told that the President would cut the deficit
in half, and instead we have the worst debt in our Nation's history. We
were told he would take steps to reduce the price of oil, and instead
gas prices have doubled at the pump. One more of his policies
[[Page H1462]]
that has failed is clearly his health care plan.
We were told that it would create jobs, but instead every day I hear
from job creators in the Fifth District of Texas who write me things
like:
ObamaCare will put a tremendous burden on my company. I
can't put a 5-year plan in place. I therefore have to
withhold cash for expansion.
I also hear things like:
I could start two companies and hire multiple people, but
based on this administration and the lack of facts with
ObamaCare, I will continue to sit and wait.
We know now that the Congressional Budget Office says that the health
care plan will cost us almost a million jobs from this economy.
We were also told that if we pass this that health care would be more
affordable and lower premiums, but instead the Congressional Budget
Office now tells us that the new benefit mandates will force premiums
to rise in the individual market by $2,100 per family.
Any way you look at it, the President's health care law is harming
job growth; it's harming our economy. But perhaps even more ominously,
it's the infamous Independent Payment Advisory Board, section 3403 of
the act, that will harm our seniors.
The IPAB is going to be comprised of 15 unelected, unaccountable
bureaucrats handpicked by the President. Their sole job is going to be
to ration health care to our seniors and impose Federal price controls.
This will undoubtedly slash senior access to doctors and to other
providers. They literally will be making decisions about the health of
our loved ones, our parents, and our grandparents.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services actuary has confirmed
that large reductions in Medicare payment rates to physicians would
likely have serious implications for beneficiary access to care
utilization, intensity, and quality of services.
Mr. Chairman, when it comes to my parents, both of whom are on
Medicare, no government acronym, no government bureaucrat, no
government board can ever substitute for the good judgment of their
chosen family doctor. That's why today I'm proud to stand with my
colleagues here to vote to repeal the IPAB.
Once again, we need to repeal the President's health care plan and do
it today.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased at this time to yield 4
minutes to the distinguished Democratic whip, Mr. Hoyer, from the State
of Maryland.
Mr. HOYER. I want to speak about this bill, but I also want to
respond to the chairman of the Republican Conference, who apparently
fails to realize that we've created 4 million jobs, 3.96 million to be
exact, over the last 24 months. We've had 10 quarters of growth in
America. As opposed to losing 786,000 jobs the last month of President
Bush's term, we added 257,000 last month in the private sector.
So to say that the President's program is not working is simply
inaccurate.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is a wolf in sheep's clothing. They
don't like the health care bill. That's what the chairman of the
conference just said. He wants to vote to repeal that. We understand
that. They want to pick it apart piece by piece.
Let me talk about it. Two years ago, we passed a comprehensive health
care reform package that is already lowering costs, expanding access,
and contributing to deficit reduction. The Affordable Care Act was a
significant moment when Congress once again took bold action to
constrain the growth in health care spending and make insurance more
accessible and affordable for all Americans. As the wealthiest country
on the face of the Earth, we ought to make sure that people can get
insurance and have affordable, accessible health care.
Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children with
preexisting conditions. I bet they think that's a benefit, a protection
that will be extended to all Americans by 2014. I've had a lot of
people talk to me about that provision. They like it.
Insurance companies can no longer drop Americans from their policies
when they get sick or impose arbitrary and unfair caps on coverage. You
buy insurance to make sure when you get sick you have coverage. If you
get very sick and need more coverage, it says you can't cancel because
you're really sick. I think Americans like that.
Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, over 32 million
seniors on Medicare have access to free preventative services. The
Medicare part D doughnut hole is on the path to close completely by
2020. Seniors who fall into this coverage gap are right now getting a
50 percent discount on their brand drugs. They like that.
Now 360,000 small businesses have already taken advantage of tax
credits that are helping them provide more affordable coverage to over
2 million workers. Lifetime limits on over 105 million Americans with
private insurance have been eliminated. Over 2,800 employers have
already received financial assistance that helps them provide
affordable insurance to 13 million retirees who are not yet eligible
for Medicare.
The CBO continues to project that the Affordable Care Act will reduce
the deficits by tens of billions of dollars by the end of this decade.
Despite all of these benefits, today Republicans will take yet
another vote to repeal part of the Affordable Care Act. But what they
want to do is repeal the act. That's what the chairman said of the
conference. I take him at his word. I appreciate his honesty.
Today their focus is on the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or
IPAB, which couldn't be a less timely issue. IPAB is a backstop
mechanism to ensure that the Affordable Care Act's savings and cost-
containment provisions will be achieved. But CBO has already said they
don't expect it to be triggered at all over the next decade. That's
because the Affordable Care Act's cost-containment provisions are
already having a significant impact on slowing the growth of health
care and Medicare spending.
This proves that the Medicare spending can be constrained without
turning Medicare into a voucher program as the chairman has said. That
forces seniors to spend more and ends the Medicare guarantee. Americans
don't want that.
The Republican plan does exactly that and tries to mask the end of
Medicare as we know it by talking about choices and competition.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.
Mr. HOYER. But both competition and choice already exist in the
Medicare program.
{time} 1620
Of beneficiaries, 99.7 percent have access to at least one Medicare
Advantage plan, and in the majority of counties, they have an average
of 26 private plans to choose from. In spite of all these choices,
about 75 percent of all seniors still choose to remain in traditional
Medicare.
The Republican budget, released just yesterday, paints a clear
picture of their priorities, showing once again they stand for ending
the Medicare guarantee, shifting ever-increasing costs on to our
seniors and repealing all of the Affordable Care Act's patient
protections.
I stand behind the cost-containment provisions, the delivery-system
reforms, the improvement to Medicare, and the new benefits and
protections that were enacted under health reform. And I stand with my
fellow Democrats and America's seniors in support of preserving the
Medicare guarantee and ensuring that Medicare remains available and
affordable for generations to come.
I appreciate the ranking member's leadership on this issue and all of
those who were critically responsible in ensuring that Americans have
access to affordable quality health care.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, 2 years ago, they said PPACA would cost less
than $1 trillion. The CBO's new estimate says it's going to cost over
$1.7 trillion. Stay tuned.
I now yield 2 minutes to the author of the IPAB repeal, the gentleman
from Tennessee, Dr. Roe.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. I thank the chairman for yielding.
I guess, if the Affordable Care Act is so popular with the American
people, that's why 60 percent want it overturned. I'll start by saying
that. That's the latest that I've seen.
Let me just go over briefly what the IPAB is and why I'm so
vehemently opposed to it.
[[Page H1463]]
As an over-30-year practicing physician, I've looked at this, and
I've seen two examples already of why I know and what I know is going
to happen here.
We have the model in the SGR, the sustainable growth rate, which is
what we pay Medicare physicians today. As has been stated multiple
times, we have a board with 15 appointed people to it. Over half of
them cannot be health care providers or cannot be health care-related
folks that are going to make decisions based on a formula for Medicare
spending. We're going to set limits. If you exceed those limits, then
cuts will come to providers. We've done that with SGR. And guess what
the Congress has had the ability to do during that time? To override
those cuts, because everybody in here, both Republicans and Democrats,
understand if we cut our providers, we're going to decrease access for
those patients.
What has happened with SGR? Just 2 weeks ago, we passed an SGR
temporary fix to the end of this year to avoid a 27 percent cut in
physician payments. Guess what would happen with IPAB? Mr. Chairman,
there would be a 27 percent cut to Medicare providers and in 5 years--
also, the hospitals are included. I can tell you our rural hospitals
where I live will not survive those cuts. Those cuts will occur with
minimal overlook from this U.S. Congress and no judicial review.
Let me read this right here: IPAB is the single biggest yielding of
power to an independent entity since the creation of the Federal
Reserve. This is not me. This is Peter Orszag, the former budget
director for President Obama.
My concern as a practicing physician is that if we cut physician
payments so far, our patients will not have access to us. Right now,
Mr. Chairman, in the primary care group I'm in, that access is already
being limited, and we see it around the country.
One final thing. I started practicing as an obstetrician in 1977.
I've delivered almost 5,000 babies. I paid $4,000 a year for
malpractice coverage. When I left, the young physician who replaced me
was paying $74,000 a year. The patient has got no more value.
In 1975, when I got back home from the Army, every single malpractice
carrier had left the State of Tennessee. Almost all 10,000 physicians
in Tennessee get their insurance from a mutual company. Since 1975,
over half the premium dollars that every doctor has paid into the State
of Tennessee has gone to attorneys, not to the injured party. Less than
40 cents of every dollar has gone to the people who have actually been
injured.
We have a terrible system of paying people who have been injured,
compensating them. This will allow us to do that and will allow us to
get some certainty so that those costs don't keep rising beyond
anybody's ability to pay. What has happened in a lot of places, Mr.
Chairman, is access to OB doctors and high-risk doctors has been
limited because of the liability.
I strongly support H.R. 5, and urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, nobody is going to deny that there is a
problem with medical malpractice. The issue is whether the State of
Tennessee can adopt a law to solve its own problem the way the State of
California has done, the way the other States have acted. Let the
States operate in this area which has been traditionally reserved for
them. Washington does not have all the answers. Imposing one system on
the whole country is not the way to go.
I would like to at this point yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
the State of Washington (Mr. McDermott).
(Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Chairman, you might ask why we're having this
debate. Well, the Republicans have never wanted to solve the Americans'
problem with health care access and cost; and the Congress passed, with
the President's help, a bill that gave access to many millions of
people and put in place some mechanisms to control costs.
The Republicans have tried to repeal it again and again, Mr.
Chairman; and they know next Wednesday it's going to be in the Supreme
Court. So today is press release time, and they have a formula for
press releases in this House. The Members are going home to their
districts, so they select a straw man and they put him up here. The
straw man in this case is the IPAB. Then they scare seniors. They say:
this IPAB is going to take away your health care. Then all the seniors
are supposed to crawl under the chair or under the bed because the
Republicans are out scaring people again. They do it by telling half
truths.
This commission will make recommendations that the Congress can
adopt, change, or if they don't want to do it, they can let them go
into play. They have three choices, and the Congress can do either to
change them or adopt them. We're not to giving away our power. That is
a half truth to say that we are.
Secondly, as you heard from the whip, it's 10 years before this
happens. Folks, if you're sitting at home watching this--Mr. Chairman,
they are probably all scared and have quit eating their dinner because
they're worried about what's going to happen. We're talking about
something that's going to happen in 10 years. This is simply a scare
tactic, and it is directly related to the attempt to derail the
President's reelection. If they can take down this health care bill,
they will have him. They will have shown he hasn't done anything. But
the fact is he got it through here, and it's going to be implemented in
2013.
You can spend all the time you want passing bills in here that are
absolutely kabuki theater, because this bill is going to go over to the
Senate. You all know it has to pass both the Senate and the House. The
Senate put this in. Does anybody think that the United States Senate is
going to take away seniors' rights to health care? I mean, does anyone
think that? You're accusing the United States Senate of putting this in
the bill, setting it up to take away health care benefits from seniors.
That is nonsense. If you think the Senate is going to walk away from
this provision, well, more kabuki theater. We will be back on another
day.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.
Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield to the gentleman from California.
{time} 1630
Mr. WAXMAN. We want to hold down the costs in health care for
Medicare, itself. The cost of health care is going up for all health
care coverage; but Medicare, if it goes up too much, it's a real
problem. So in the Affordable Care Act, we try to put in place ways to
hold down costs by reorganizing the delivery of care. We have some
other strategies. We hope it will work. But for a backstop, if it
doesn't work, there is this Independent Payment Advisory Board, and
they will give us some idea as to how to hold down health care costs.
Now, it seems to me, the biggest objection is, once they give their
recommendations, we can accept them, we can change them, or we can let
them go into effect. I think the biggest problem is that if nothing
happens, those health care costs go up; and that's what preserves the
right of Congress, is to let nothing happen. And this is not how to
hold down costs. This is to let the costs go up.
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time, I yield 3 minutes to another
doctor, Dr. Harris, from the State of Maryland.
Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chairman, I think the gentleman from California just
said what this is all about: The IPAB is about cutting expenditures for
our seniors on Medicare when they need their health care.
The IPAB is no straw man. It's a health care policy bureaucrat's
dream and a Medicare patient's nightmare. It's 15 bureaucrats--and the
gentleman from California called it right--insurance company
representatives, pharmacy company representatives, benefit managers,
employers, all those people who really have the care of an individual
patient in mind.
In fact, that rationing board limits the number of health care
professionals who can serve to a minority, a minority of people, and
then goes further and says, And, oh, by the way, they have to actually
stop practicing health care for the 6 years they sit on the board. How
[[Page H1464]]
close are they going to be to knowing what's going on in the care of a
patient?
The gentleman from Iowa talked about the myth of defensive medicine.
I want to ask anyone who cares to go in a labor and delivery suite and
look what's happened to obstetric care, to our women in America over
the past 40 years because we don't have effective tort reform.
I'm an obstetric anesthesiologist. I spent 30 years in a labor and
delivery suite. In 1970, the cesarean section rate in this country was
5 percent. One in 20 women going to a hospital to have a baby would
have a cesarean section. Last year it was 33 percent. I will tell you,
not much has changed about childbirth in that time, but now a woman
going into the hospital to have a baby has a one in three chance of
having a cesarean section. Not only that, but 40 years ago--those of
you who want to, ask people you know who delivered 40 years ago. Most
obstetrics was delivered by a one- or two-person group where a woman
got to know the obstetrician who was going to deliver her baby.
Go ask the folks in your district now what happens. You go into a
group of about 10 or 12 people because they can't afford the
malpractice insurance. They have to go into a big group so someone else
can pay it. It's impersonal service. Go and try to find an obstetrician
who is in their fifties or sixties and practicing obstetrics. They gave
it up long ago because they can't afford the premiums. The most
experienced obstetricians are no longer delivering care to American
women.
The C-section rate is one in three, and a woman can't even expect to
see her obstetrician every time she goes to those prenatal visits
because there are eight or 10 in the group, and they all have to have a
chance to see that patient. That's what the lack of tort reform has
done to the delivery of care to women in this country.
We need to pass this bill and pass it now.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire how much time each side has
remaining in the general debate.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from California has 17\1/2\ minutes
remaining, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania has 29\3/4\ minutes
remaining.
Mr. WAXMAN. I will reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to another
doctor, the gentleman from Indiana, Dr. Bucshon.
Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of repealing the
Independent Payment Advisory Board, or the so-called IPAB; and I urge
President Obama and our colleagues in the U.S. Senate to join us, the
House Republicans, in saving access to quality care for America's
seniors.
I've been a practicing physician for over 15 years, and I don't think
I have seen anything potentially more detrimental to seniors' health
care than the Independent Payment Advisory Board created under the
Affordable Care Act. As has already been said, this group of 15
unelected Washington, DC, bureaucrats, appointed by the President, will
be making decisions on the funding of Medicare with little oversight
from your elected officials. This is not a partisan issue. Whether it's
this President, the next President, or a President 20 years from now,
no President should have the power to create a board with this much
control over health care.
Doctors provide critical care to our Nation's seniors, but they also
run a business. They have to receive proper reimbursement to keep their
doors open or they will lose their ability to provide care for
America's seniors.
The Affordable Care Act has already cut over $500 billion from the
Medicare program, and then the President doubled down by proposing over
$300 billion more in his budget. Medicare cannot sustain further cuts
if we are to keep access for America's seniors.
Without any chance of judicial or congressional oversight, IPAB will
become one of the most powerful agencies within our government.
I ask the American people: What part of the government operates this
way? When people in Washington, DC, make decisions you don't agree
with, you can vote them out of office, but when IPAB makes a decision,
the American people most likely will have no recourse.
If the President and the U.S. Senate really are concerned about
saving Medicare, which they claim to be, I urge them to get serious and
work with us, because according to CBO, Medicare may be insolvent as
early as 2016. We need to reform Medicare in order to strengthen and
preserve it for future generations, and true reform is not continuing
to cut funding of the program.
Again, I urge the President and the Senate to join us in eliminating
IPAB.
Mr. WAXMAN. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time I yield 2 minutes to another
doctor, the gentleman from Michigan, Dr. Benishek.
Mr. BENISHEK. I thank the chairman for yielding.
Mr. Chairman, as my good friend, the chairman, knows, before I came
to this House, I served as a general surgeon for three decades. So 2
years ago this week, while President Obama was pitching his 2,000-page
health care overhaul, I was back home in Michigan, taking care of
patients and wondering how this law was going to change the
relationship between a physician and his patients.
Now the President's broken promises have shown us: Instead of
providing real solutions to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship
or improving the way we deliver health care to patients, the President
gave us the Independent Payment Advisory Board. IPAB is a 15-member
commission of unelected bureaucrats charged with cutting Medicare
spending, specifically reimbursement for physicians. It's a very
Washington-type solution to take something as personal as a doctor
seeing a patient in his office and creating a panel of Washington
bureaucrats to determine how that's going to be paid for.
As a physician, I can tell you that when you set up an unelected
board and give them unprecedented power and little government
oversight, the results will be clear. This will lead to arbitrary cuts
to the Medicare program, less access to care, and rationing. Today we
are voting to stop that from happening.
Mr. Chairman, we've already heard the other side of the aisle
accusing the majority of pushing Grandma off a cliff. But instead of
scare tactics and hyperbole, I ask Members on both sides of the aisle
to support this effort to repeal the IPAB. Support this effort to
eliminate what seniors are really concerned about: a group of unelected
bureaucrats making health care decisions for them.
As a physician, I am proud to support the repeal of this ill-
conceived rationing board on behalf of all my patients and constituents
in northern Michigan.
{time} 1640
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time I yield 2 minutes to another
health care professional--a nurse--the gentlelady from North Carolina,
Renee Ellmers.
Mrs. ELLMERS. I thank the chairman for this opportunity to speak with
my colleagues as a nurse and a wife of a general surgeon.
Mr. Chairman, IPAB was created under ObamaCare to slash Medicare
spending by restricting health care services for seniors in need.
Repealing IPAB will restore the doctor-patient relationship.
Mr. Chairman, when someone goes to the doctor, they reveal the most
personal experiences of their lives and engage in a relationship with a
dedicated health care professional who puts his or her career on the
line for the purpose of making that individual whole again. Left alone,
President Obama's government-knows-best mentality will force our
seniors to cede this relationship to a board of unelected and
unaccountable bureaucrats who will have the power over the health and
the lives of millions of other Americans. Each patient is unique, and
their care rests on the doctor's ability to provide the best treatments
available, regardless of the cost of their liability.
One of the greatest challenges facing our Nation's health care
system, including Medicare, is the rapidly rising costs. This
legislation recognizes that. This legislation repairs and repeals the
IPAB with commonsense medical liability reform that will save billions
of dollars.
[[Page H1465]]
I have sat and listened to the debate today, and I have listened
intently over the 2 years since ObamaCare went into effect, and I still
have one question to my Democrat colleagues across the aisle: What is
your solution for Medicare? We know it is not sustainable as it is now.
What is your solution?
Mr. Chairman, Federal bureaucrats should not dictate to doctors how
to provide care, force them to provide medication regardless of their
known complications, and make them liable with no limits or
protections.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. PITTS. I yield the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds.
Mrs. ELLMERS. We have got to move forward on malpractice reform. Our
colleagues ask the question, How can malpractice be put in place at the
Federal level? And yet they have put Federal health care as an issue
and put control as an issue.
We must provide patients and medical professionals with the security
and the safety net.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, our idea for Medicare for the future is to make it
better, not to eliminate it. In the Affordable Care Act, we provide
help for seniors to pay for their prescription drugs, especially when
they're in the doughnut hole. We provide money so they will be sure to
have preventive services without having to pay for them so that we know
we can prevent diseases that we otherwise have to pay to treat. We have
extended the life of the Medicare trust fund. We're always looking for
ways to hold down costs in a reasonable, rational way.
One of the reasons we have very high costs in Medicare is, when a
doctor and a patient get together, the doctor decides on how many
services are going to be paid for, especially when that doctor gets
paid more money for more services. Therefore, we've got to look for
alternatives to that. Now I have a feeling the doctors like the idea of
deciding how many services are going to be paid for, but we just can't
afford that.
So we have ways to hold down health care costs by trying to bring
people together in affordable care organizations, ways for doctors to
manage the care from physician to physician in a more efficient way,
and we have a backup if these other things don't work--to have an
advisory committee to give us their ideas; but their ideas cannot lead
to rationing health care or making people have to pay more money for
their insurance or to restrict benefits or modify eligibility. That's
what we propose to do.
The Republicans propose to take away the assured guarantee of
services under Medicare and require people to go find a private
insurance plan, if they can afford it, over and above the voucher,
which would never keep pace with the increase of health care costs.
At this time, I yield 2 minutes to my California colleague (Mr.
Thompson).
Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I rise today in opposition to this legislation. Whether or not you're
a fan of the IPAB, I strongly urge you to oppose the bill. This bill is
not about IPAB. This bill is nothing more than a political maneuver to
attack the Affordable Care Act on the 2-year anniversary of its
enactment.
I challenge anyone to talk to one of the over 7,000 young adults in
my district who now have health care insurance coverage and ask them if
the Affordable Care Act should be repealed. Or maybe the 6,000 seniors
in my district who have saved over $3 million on the cost of
prescription drugs. Or the 30,000 children and 120,000 adults who now
have health care insurance that actually covers preventive services
without burdensome copayments. Or the thousands of children with
preexisting health conditions who will no longer be denied coverage by
health insurers or told they've hit their lifetime cap for services
because of a disease with which they were born. Ask them if they'd like
to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.
No one has ever suggested that this bill was the perfect solution to
health care, but we should be working together to fix it, not trying to
repeal it for cheap political points. And to add the medical
malpractice provision that they added in this bill, that is so wrong-
headed that the doctors in California have come out in opposition to
this bill. Any doctor will tell you there's work that needs to be done
in regard to medical malpractice, but the way this was done has even
brought the doctors to the table in opposition.
So, on behalf of the millions of Americans who are already benefiting
from the Affordable Care Act, I ask you to join with me and with the
California doctors in opposition to this legislation that does no one
any good at all.
Mr. PITTS. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I find it interesting that the gentleman who just spoke
signed a letter to former Speaker Pelosi on December 17, 2009, that
says the IPAB provisions severely limit the congressional oversight of
the Medicare program and eliminate the transparency of congressional
hearings and debate. Moreover, the creation of a Medicare board would
effectively eliminate State community input in the Medicare program,
removing the ability to develop and implement policies expressly
applicable to different patient populations. So IPAB or an equivalent
commission, they said, could not only threaten the ability of Medicare
beneficiaries but of all Americans to access the care they need.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce).
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on
this legislation, H.R. 5.
One of the most trusted sources of information in my Mom's life--
she's in her eighties--is her physician. We just got a history lesson,
a civics lesson, from our friends across the aisle just a moment ago
expressing how the Democrat Congress passed, the Democrat Senate
passed, and a Democrat President signed into law a bill that puts into
place ways to control the costs. It took $500 billion from Medicare in
order to pay for the bill that they passed. Then in addition to the
civics lesson, we were given a political reality that the Senate is not
going to take the bill up--therefore, we should not be discussing it.
I think, for the peace of mind of people like my mom who are going to
have the IPAB, this independent board, inserted between them and their
doctors--Mom won't even get to talk to her doctor if this board decides
she can't. The scheduler will simply say you have to come back next
month or next year, and we're told we shouldn't bring that up because
it might scare seniors. Seniors have a right to be scared. They have a
right to wonder.
{time} 1650
If some board does not even answer to Congress, it can change laws
without coming to us, and it can write its own rules; and we're to be
told that we should not be discussing this issue because it might
frighten seniors. It just might, and they very well should be told.
The Obama health care legislation did not bring one new doctor into
service, but it brought millions of new patients in. The real truth is
that we have increasing demand for doctor services because of these new
patients and no new supply. You're going to have to limit it somewhere.
They wanted to hide this limitation under the IPAB. We're simply
saying, let's restore the relationship between 86-year-old moms and the
doctors. Let's get rid of the IPAB. This bill would do it.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, if you listen to the comments that were just made on
the House floor, it would be better to leave over 30 million people
without health insurance because they want to see doctors when they get
sick.
The legislation, the Affordable Care Act, provides more training for
doctors and higher reimbursement for primary care doctors, and it
provides for the opportunity to get a medical education with a payback
in underserved areas. We're going to get more doctors, but we shouldn't
say that those who have health insurance should turn their backs as the
Republicans, I feel, are doing to all of those who have no insurance
whatsoever.
I want to yield, at this point, 5 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from the State of Virginia (Mr. Scott) so he can further
speak on this legislation.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to
H.R.
[[Page H1466]]
5. There are several troublesome provisions with the bill.
For example, it sets an arbitrary and discriminatory $250,000 cap on
noneconomic damages; it reduces the amount of time an injured patient
has to file a lawsuit; and it also repeals IPAB, the board created by
the Affordable Care Act to control Medicare costs while preserving
access to care.
Although there are many troublesome provisions in the bill, I'd like
to speak at length about one provision, the so-called fair share
provision.
The fair share provision would repeal the general rule of joint and
several liability. Joint and several liability is a common law
principle that enables an injured patient to seek compensation from any
or all of the parties responsible for the patient's injuries. Joint and
several liability provides that each of the guilty defendants are
jointly responsible and individually responsible for the total damages,
and, if they want, they can agree in advance on how to apportion fault
among themselves; thus they can purchase and share the cost of
insurance and charge their fees for services based on that agreement.
The general rule of joint and several liability does not burden the
injured patient with the requirement of assigning proportional fault.
This PATH Act creates a bizarre and impossible standard for the patient
by eliminating joint and several liability. It requires that the
plaintiff, who is the patient, demonstrate each negligent party's
proportional responsibility. This is often impossible for the plaintiff
because frequently all the patient knows is he woke up as the victim of
malpractice. Why should he then be required to find out what each and
everybody did? And how does he do that when everybody is denying any
liability?
Unfortunately, this bill essentially requires the plaintiff to
conduct a separate case against each defendant, each case requiring a
finding of duty of care, a breach of that duty, a proximate cause, a
finding of damages, and then a determination of what part of the
damages are attributable to what malpractice.
Each of those cases requires an expensive expert witness,
depositions, and the full expense of complicated litigation. It also
complicates any settlement that might take place because a patient
can't take a chance of settling with one defendant without knowing
what, ultimately, the other defendants might have to pay.
What's most disturbing about this bill is it eliminates joint and
several liability for all kinds of damages, including economic damages.
In doing so, H.R. 5 is more extreme than most States' laws. Economic
loss compensates injured parties for their out-of-pocket expenses, such
as the hospital bills, the doctor bills, and lost wages. Even though
the proponents of H.R. 5 claim to use California's Medical Injury
Compensation Reform Act as a model, not even California eliminates
joint and several liability for economic damages.
Mr. Chairman, over centuries, each State has balanced judicial
procedures between defendants and plaintiffs. Some provide longer and
some shorter statutes of limitations. Some have large, some have small,
and some have no caps at all on damages. Some deny recovery in cases of
contributory negligence. Others allow recovery based on comparative
negligence. Most have joint and several liability--a few do not--but
the interests of plaintiffs and defendants have been balanced over the
years in each State. We should not override centuries of the State-
level balancing of these interests by preempting some parts of tort law
with this Federal bill.
Mr. Chairman, we usually hear that tort reform is necessary to
address three problems: defensive medicine, high malpractice premiums,
and frivolous lawsuits.
This bill will not prevent, will not do anything to deal with
defensive medicine, because the lawsuits are not eliminated. There will
still be defensive medicine, and because it increases expenses for
defendants, it may actually increase total malpractice premiums.
Finally, the bill does not target frivolous lawsuits. The Institute
of Medicine estimates that approximately up to 100,000 patients die
every year due to medical mistakes, and yet there are only about 15,000
medical malpractice payments each year, so there's a question of
whether or not frivolous lawsuits are even a problem. But to the extent
that it is a problem, this bill will not target frivolous lawsuits; it
will increase the cost of litigation and may reduce all lawsuits, but
it will not target frivolous lawsuits.
So, Mr. Chairman, I would hope that we will not pass a Federal law to
abolish joint and several liability at the State level, and I would
urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hultgren).
Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this bill.
The unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats of the Independent
Payment Advisory Board pose a threat to the ability of seniors in my
district and around this country to get the health care they need.
Across my district, I hear from doctors who are deeply concerned
about their ability to accept more Medicare recipients because
reimbursement rates are already too low; but if the IPAB bureaucrats
are allowed to ration care, rates will be driven even lower. Fewer
doctors will be able to afford to treat Medicare patients. It's cruel
to tell our seniors that they have Medicare but refuse to tell them
that there will be no doctors who will be able to treat them.
IPAB will be the end of Medicare as we know it and the end of
seniors' ability to get treatment from their preferred doctors. That's
why we must act now to repeal IPAB--to protect seniors and to protect
Medicare.
I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in
supporting this bill.
Mr. PITTS. May I ask the gentleman how many speakers he has
remaining?
Mr. WAXMAN. We have one.
Mr. PITTS. I'll yield to myself at this time, then, such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Chairman, H.R. 5, the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, the
PATH Act, not only fixes our broken medical liability system; it also
repeals the Independent Payment Advisory Board, one of the most ominous
provisions in the President's sweeping overhaul of health care.
Medical liability reform will preserve access to quality health care
in States like Pennsylvania by allowing doctors in high-risk
specialties, such as obstetrics and neurosurgery, to practice without
the fear of frivolous lawsuits and, according to the Congressional
Budget Office, to reduce the Federal deficit by $48.6 billion over the
next 10 years.
According to the President's health care law, the purpose of IPAB is
to reduce Medicare's per capita growth rate. The board is made up, as
we've heard, of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who will be
paid $165,300 a year to serve 6-year terms on the board. If Medicare
growth goes over an arbitrary target, the board is required to submit a
proposal to Congress that would reduce Medicare's growth rate.
{time} 1700
These recommendations will automatically go into effect unless
Congress passes legislation that would achieve the same amount of
savings. In order to do so, Congress must meet an almost impossible
deadline and clear an almost insurmountable legislative hurdle.
The board has the power to make binding decisions about Medicare
policy with no requirement for public comment prior to issuing their
recommendations. Individuals and providers will have no recourse
against the board because its decisions cannot be appealed or reviewed.
In other words, the board will make major health care legislation
essentially outside the usual legislative process.
The board is also limited to how it can achieve the required savings.
Therefore, IPAB's recommendations will be restricted to cutting
provider reimbursements. In many cases, Medicare already reimburses
below the cost of providing services, and we're already seeing doctors
refusing to take new Medicare patients--or Medicare patients at all--
because they cannot afford to absorb the losses.
Any additional provider cuts will lead to fewer Medicare providers.
That means that beneficiary access will suffer. Seniors will be forced
to wait in
[[Page H1467]]
longer and longer lines to be seen by an ever-shrinking pool of
providers or will have to travel longer and longer distances to find a
provider willing to see them. Clearly, Medicare growth is on an out-of-
control trajectory that endangers the solvency and continued existence
of the program. IPAB, however, is not the solution.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased at this time to yield 2
minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).
Mr. HOLT. I thank my friend from California.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to H.R. 5, which would repeal the
Independent Payment Advisory Board, which I think is one of the good
features of the health reform law.
I have real concerns about H.R. 5. We're talking about undoing work
instead of doing the work that this Congress should do--repealing IPAB
in the pretext of protecting Medicare just one day after the Republican
budget was released that would end Medicare and shift the costs of
health care to our seniors while giving tax breaks to millionaires.
There's just no logic to this.
The bill would also make significant changes to the Federal health
care liability system, making it difficult for legitimately injured
patients to hold health care providers accountable, including even
limiting the ability of victims of sexual abuse from getting justice
from the institutions and providers who had harmed them.
The health reform law, which the Republicans want to repeal, included
malpractice reforms, like grant programs for States. While I support
improvements to the medical malpractice process, it's important to note
that malpractice is not the primary--not even really a significant
reason--for the escalating health care costs. States that have passed
stringent limits on medical malpractice claims like the ones in H.R. 5
have in fact some of the most expensive health care in the country.
This bill is irresponsible and unnecessary. Where is the
transportation bill? Where are the jobs bills? Why are we on the floor
talking about undoing good work instead of doing the work that this
Congress should be doing? This bill is irresponsible and unnecessary. I
urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this political theater.
The Acting CHAIR (Mr. Womack). The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. I'd like to yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman
and ask him to yield to me.
Mr. HOLT. I am pleased to yield to my friend from California.
Mr. WAXMAN. The problem that we keep facing is rapidly rising health
care costs. It's not just for Medicare; it's for private insurance.
It's for anybody who has health coverage that costs of health care are
going up rapidly. The approach of Medicare has always been to look for
ways to hold down the cost.
There was a time when ophthalmologists would charge a fee for
removing the cataract and then ask for another fee for inserting the
lens. Well, that made sense when that surgery was brand new, but they
didn't want to give up the two fees that they were receiving because it
would be a reduction in their reimbursement. But Medicare said no, that
really doesn't make sense. Medicare does a lot of things to hold down
cost, and then private insurance picks them up because so often they
make sense.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. WAXMAN. I yield the gentleman another 30 seconds.
Mr. HOLT. And I yield that to the gentleman.
Mr. WAXMAN. The way to hold down cost is to try to reform the way
health care is delivered. Medicare tries to do that. If we don't do it
that way, the Republicans would say that private insurance will be able
to control it because that's all people are going to be able to get. No
more Medicare. They will have to buy private insurance and let the
insurance company tell the doctor and the patient what they will be
able to do with their trying to hold down cost, without regard to the
Medicare patient.
I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, before I yield to the gentleman from
Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, for our close, I just want to remind him of a
statement by the chairman. Representative Stark of the Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Health, during the debate and passage of PPACA, he
called the establishment of the board ``a dangerous provision that sets
Medicare up for unsustainable cuts.'' We should be reminded of that.
At this time, I yield the balance of my time to one of the authors of
the legislation, a distinguished member of the Health Subcommittee and
a doctor, the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Madam Chairman, as a physician Member and
coauthor of the bill, I am truly honored that Chairman Pitts is
allowing me to close the debate on H.R. 5, the PATH Act--appropriately
named. For meaningful medical liability reform and the elimination of
IPAB together will put Medicare in specific, and health care in
general, back on the right path: a path to fiscal solvency for one-
sixth of our economy; a path to compassionate, cost effective,
efficient, and timely health care for all who call this great country
home; a path to fairness in our court systems so that those injured by
malpractice get their day before a jury of their peers and they are
justly compensated, not crowded out by the growing problem of frivolous
claims and out-of-control legal fees; a path to a bipartisan and a
bicameral solution to one of the most pressing issues that this Nation
will ever again face, that is, to save Medicare for our current seniors
and strengthen it for all future generations.
Let's get started right now. Our country cannot wait any longer. Vote
``yes'' on H.R. 5, the right PATH Act.
{time} 1710
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today I come to the floor to speak in support of H.R. 5, the
Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, which, among other things, will
repeal yet another poorly designed provision from the Democrats' health
care law.
Specifically, this legislation would repeal the Independent Payment
Advisory Board. IPAB, as it's commonly known, is a dangerous new
government agency made up of unelected bureaucrats who can meet in
total secrecy to decide what seniors will pay and what health care
services will be available to seniors. This unaccountable board has but
one objective: to save money by restricting access to health care for
Medicare beneficiaries.
Nearly 2 years since its passage, the Democrats' health care law
remains deeply unpopular, with an Associated Press poll recently
revealing that nearly half of the American people oppose the law. IPAB,
which is a critical component of the law, illustrates why those
concerns are still so strong.
A separate poll confirms that opposition far outweighs support with
73 percent expressing concern that Medicare cuts recommended by IPAB
could go into effect without congressional approval. Even IPAB's
recommendations overturn a law previously passed by Congress. Seventy-
one percent expressed concern that changes made to Medicare based on
IPAB's recommendations cannot be challenged in court, and 67 percent
worry that IPAB could choose to limit which specific health services
are covered by Medicare.
The American people have every reason to be worried. We should be
protecting and empowering our seniors, not jeopardizing their access to
health care. Yet IPAB removes seniors, physicians, and families from
the decision-making process about how best to meet their health care
needs. Instead of giving seniors more choices, these unelected
bureaucrats will take away choices from patients, from doctors, and
from families. This government-knows-best approach is why Americans
across the country support repeal, and it's also why there's strong
bipartisan support here in Congress to repeal IPAB.
When the Ways and Means Committee considered this legislation, we
received numerous letters from groups across the Nation representing
employers, patients, doctors, and health care professionals who voiced
strong support for IPAB repeal. The groups span
[[Page H1468]]
across the political spectrum and include the Easter Seals, the
Alliance of Specialty Medicine, the Veterans Health Council,
FreedomWorks, and Americans for Tax Reform. In total, over 390 groups
have signed letters asking that Congress repeal IPAB, and I will insert
these letters into the Record.
America's seniors deserve better. Without reform, the Medicare
trustees have said that Medicare will soon go broke and not be able to
provide the benefits seniors rely on. With more and more Americans
becoming eligible for Medicare each day, no time is more urgent than
now to secure the future of beneficiaries' access to care. IPAB does
just the opposite. It threatens seniors' access to health care, and
that is why it must be repealed.
Madam Chairman, the Democrats got it right when they named the IPAB.
It truly is the Independent Payment Advisory Board. It's independent
from seniors, independent from people with disabilities, independent
from the voters, independent from legal challenges and appeals, and
independent from any accountability.
It's time to give that independence back to doctors, to patients, and
to Congress by voting to repeal this Washington power grab. I urge my
colleagues to join me in supporting repeal of the Independent Payment
Advisory Board and to vote ``yes'' on this legislation.
March 7, 2012.
Dear Member of Congress: The organizations listed below
represent a breadth of entities including all sectors of the
healthcare industry, employers of different sizes and
geographic locations, as well as purchasers of care,
consumers and patients. We all share the conviction that the
Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) will not only
severely limit Medicare beneficiaries' access to care but
also increase healthcare costs that are shifted onto the
private sector. While we all recognize the need for more
sustainable healthcare costs, we do not believe the IPAB is
the way to, or will, accomplish this goal.
As you know, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA [P.L. 111 148]) created the IPAB, a board appointed by
the President and empowered to make recommendations to cut
spending in Medicare if its spending growth reaches certain
measures. The IPAB will have unprecedented power with little
oversight, even though it has the power to literally change
laws previously enacted by Congress. Further, the law
specifically prohibits administrative or judicial review of
the Secretary's implementation of a recommendation contained
in an IPAB proposal.
We are deeply concerned about the impact the IPAB will have
on patient access to quality healthcare. The bulk of any
recommended spending reductions will almost certainly come in
the form of payment cuts to Medicare providers. This will
affect patient access to care and innovative therapies. In
the past five years for which data is available, the number
of physicians unable to accept new Medicare patients because
of low reimbursement rates has more than doubled. According
to an American Medical Association survey, current
reimbursement rates have already led 17 percent of all
doctors, including 31 percent of primary care physicians, to
restrict the number of Medicare patients in their practices.
In all likelihood, the IPAB will only exacerbate this
problem.
While we are all supportive of improving the quality of
care in this country, we are concerned that the IPAB will not
be able to focus on improving healthcare and delivery system
reforms, as some of its proponents have suggested. Requiring
the IPAB to achieve scoreable savings in a one-year time
period is not conducive to generating savings through long-
term delivery system reforms. According to a recent Kaiser
Family Foundation issue brief, ``[w]hile the requirement to
achieve Medicare savings for the implementation year provides
a clear direction and target for the Board, it may discourage
the type of longer-term policy change that could be most
important for Medicare and the underlying growth in health
care costs, including delivery system reforms that MedPAC and
others have recommended which are included in the ACA--and
which generally require several years to achieve savings. If
these delivery system reforms are not `scoreable' for the
first year of implementation, the IPAB may be more likely to
consider more predictable, short-term scoreable savings, such
as reductions in payment updates for certain providers.'' The
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has in fact stated that the
Board is likely to focus its recommendations on changes to
payment rates or methodologies for services in the fee-for-
service sector by non-exempt providers. Again, this will have
a severe, negative impact on Medicare beneficiaries.
Last, we believe that the IPAB sets a dangerous precedent
for overriding the normal legislative process. Congress is a
representative body that has a duty to legislate on issues of
public policy. Abdicating this responsibility to an unelected
and unaccountable board removes our elected officials from
the decision-making process for a program that millions of
our nation's seniors and disabled individuals rely upon,
endangering the important dialogue that takes place between
elected officials and their constituents.
We do not believe the IPAB is the right way to achieve
savings in Medicare and strongly urge Congress to eliminate
this provision.
Sincerely,
Abigail Alliance, Action CF AdvaMed, Advocates for
Responsible Care, AIDS Delaware, AIDS Drug Assistance
Programs Advocacy Association, AIDS Housing Association of
Tacoma, AIDS Institute, Alabama Orthopaedic Society, Alabama
Podiatric Medical Association, Alaska State Chamber of
Commerce, Alaska State Grange, Alder Health Services, Inc.,
Alliance for Aging Research, Alliance of Specialty Medicine,
ALung Technologies, Inc., Alzheimer's & Dementia Resource
Center, Alzheimer's Arkansas, American Academy of Facial
Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, American Academy of
Neurology.
American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery,
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases,
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American
Association of Clinical Urologists, American Association for
Homecare, American Association for Marriage and Family
Therapy, American Association of Neurological Surgeons,
American Association of Orthopaedic Executives, American
Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American Autoimmune
Related Diseases Association, American College of Emergency
Physicians, American College of Emergency Physicians--Indiana
Chapter, American College of Mohs Surgery, American College
of Osteopathic Surgeons, American College of
Radiology, American College of Surgeons--Missouri Chapter,
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
American Gastroenterological Association, American Liver
Foundation--Allegheny Division.
American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics, American
Physical Therapy Association, American Podiatric Medical
Association, American Society of Anesthesiologists, American
Society of Breast Surgeons, American Society of Cataract and
Refractive Surgery, American Society of General Surgeons,
American Society of Plastic Surgeons, American Society of
Radiation Oncology, American Urological Association,
Americans for Prosperity, Amigos por la Salud, Arizona
BioIndustry Association, Arizona Medical Association, Arizona
Podiatric Medical Association, Arizona Urological Society,
Arkansas Medical Society, Arkansas Orthopaedic Society,
Arkansas Podiatric Medical Association, Associated Industries
of Florida.
Association for Behavioral Healthcare, Association of
Nurses in AIDS Care, Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America--
California Chapter, Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America--
New England Chapter, Bay Bio, BEACON (Biomedical Engineering
Alliance & Consortium), Connecticut, BIOCOM, BioNJ, BioOhio,
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), Bismarck-Mandan
Chamber of Commerce, California Healthcare Institute,
California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, California Medical
Association, California Orthopaedic Association, California
Podiatric Medical Association, California Rheumatology
Alliance, California Urological Association, Capital Region
Action Against Breast Cancer!, Center of the American
Experiment.
Children's Rare Disease Network, Coalition for Affordable
Health Coverage, Coalition of State Rheumatology, Council of
University Chairs of Obstetrics & Gynecology Organizations,
Colorado Academy of Family Physicians, Colorado BioScience
Association, Colorado Cross-Disability Association, Colorado
Gerontological Society, Colorado Podiatric Medical
Association, Colorado Retail Council, Colorado Springs Health
Partners, Community Health Charities of Florida, Community
Health Charities of Nebraska, Congress of Neurological
Surgeons, Community Oncology Alliance, Connecticut
Orthopaedic Society, Connecticut Podiatric Medical
Association, Connecticut State Urology Society, Delaware
Academy of Medicine, Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children
and Families.
Delaware HIV Consortium, Delaware Podiatric Medical
Association, Delaware State Orthopaedic Society, Docs 4
Patient Care, Easter Seals, Easter Seals Crossroads, Easter
Seals Iowa, Easter Seals of Arkansas, Easter Seals of Maine,
Easter Seals of Massachusetts, Easter Seals of New Jersey,
Easter Seals of Southeastern PA, Easter Seals of South
Florida, Easter Seals UCP North Carolina, Elder Care Advocacy
of Florida, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Medical
Association, Florida Podiatric Medical Association, Florida
Society of Neurology, Florida Society of Rheumatology.
Florida Society of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgeons,
Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Florida
Transplant Survivor's Coalition, Florida Urological Society,
Georgia Association for Home Health Agencies, Georgia Bio,
Georgia Orthopaedic Society, Georgia Podiatric Medical
Association, Global Genes, Global Healthy Living Foundation,
Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, HEALS of the South,
Healthcare Institute of New Jersey, Healthcare Leadership
Council, HealthHIV, Hemophilia Foundation of Maryland, Heart
Rhythm Society,
[[Page H1469]]
Hoosier Owners and Providers for the Elderly, Idaho Medical
Association, Idaho Podiatric Medical Association.
Illinois Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Illinois
Biotechnology Industry, Organization--iBIO',
Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Indiana Association of Cities
and Towns, Indiana Health Care Association, Indiana Health
Industry Forum, Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council,
Inc., Indiana Neurological Society, Indiana Podiatric Medical
Association, Indiana State Medical Association,
InterAmerican College of Physicians & Surgeons,
International Franchise Association, International
Institute for Human Empowerment, International Society for
the Advancement of Spine Surgery, Iowa Orthopaedic
Society, Iowa Podiatric Medical Association, Kansas
Medical Society, Kansas Podiatric Medical Association,
Kansas Urological Association.
Kentucky BioAlliance, Kentucky Medical Association,
Kentucky Podiatric Medical Association, Kidney Cancer
Association of Illinois, Large Urology Group Practice
Association, Latino Diabetes Association, Licensed
Professional Counselors Association of Georgia, Louisiana
State Medical Society, Lupus Alliance of America--Hudson
Valley Affiliate, Lupus Alliance of America--Queens and Long
Island Affiliate, Lupus Alliance of America--Southern Tier
Affiliate, Lupus Alliance of America--Upstate New York
Affiliate, Lupus Foundation of Arkansas, Lupus Foundation of
America, DC/MD/VA Chapter, Lupus Foundation of Florida, Lupus
Foundation of Mid and Northern New York, Lupus Foundation of
the Genesee Valley, Lupus Foundation of Pennsylvania, Mabel
Wadsworth Women's Health Center, Maine Health Care
Association.
Maine Osteopathic Association, Maine Podiatric Medical
Association, Maine State Council of Vietnam Veterans of
America, Maryland Orthopaedic Association, Maryland State
Medical Society, Massachusetts Association for Behavioral
Health Systems, Massachusetts Association for Mental Health,
Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, Massachusetts Medical
Device Industry Council, Massachusetts Orthopaedic
Association, Massachusetts Podiatric Medical Society, Medical
Association of Georgia, Medical Association of the State of
Alabama, Medical Society of Delaware, Medical Society of the
District of Columbia, Medical Society of the State of New
York, Medical Society of New Jersey, Men's Health Network,
Mental Health America of Indiana, Mental Health America of
Greater Houston.
MichBio, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Michigan College of
Emergency Physicians, Michigan Podiatric Medical Association,
Michigan Orthopaedic Society, Michigan Society of
Anesthesiologists, Minnesota Podiatric Medical Association,
Minnesota State Grange, Mississippi Arthritis and Rheumatism
Society, Mississippi Orthopaedic Society, Mississippi
Podiatric Medical Association, Missouri State Medical
Association, Missouri Urological Association, Montana
Orthopaedic Society, National Alliance on Mental Illness,
National Alliance on Mental Illness Colorado, National
Alliance on Mental Illness Florida, National Alliance on
Mental Illness Georgia, National Alliance on Mental Illness
Indiana, National Alliance on Mental Illness Maine.
National Alliance on Mental Illness Michigan, National
Alliance on Mental Illness NC, National Alliance on Mental
Illness Texas, National Association for Home Care & Hospice,
National Association for Home Care & Hospice--Indiana
Chapter, National Association for Home Care & Hospice--Ohio
Chapter, National Association for Uniformed Services,
National Association of Manufacturers, National Association
of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs, National
Association of People with AIDS, National Association of
Social Workers NC, National Association of Spine Specialists,
National Council of Negro Women, National Council of Negro
Women--Los Angeles View Park Section, National Council for
Community Behavioral Healthcare, National Health Foundation,
National Hemophilia Foundation--Delaware Valley Chapter,
National Kidney Foundation--Ohio Chapter, National Medical
Association, National Minority Quality Forum.
National Retail Federation, NCBIO, Nebraska Academy of
Physician Assistants, Nebraska Medical Association, Nebraska
Orthopaedic Society, Nebraska Urological Association,
Neurofibromatosis Mid-Atlantic, Nevada Orthopaedic Society,
Nevada Podiatric Medical Association, Nevada State Medical
Association, New Hampshire State Grange, New Horizons Home
Health Services, New Jersey Academy of Ophthalmology, New
Jersey Mayors Committee of Life Science, New Jersey Podiatric
Medical Society, New Mexico Podiatric Medical Association,
New York Podiatric Medical Association, New York State
Rheumatologists Society, New York State Urological
Society, North Carolina Association on Aging.
North Carolina Psychological Association, North Carolina
Rheumatology Association, North Carolina Urological
Association, North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, North Dakota
Medical Association, North Dakota Policy Council, Northwest
Urological Society, Ohio Association of Ambulatory Surgery
Centers, Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health
Authorities, Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Services,
Ohio Hospital Association, Ohio Orthopaedic Society, Ohio
State Grange, Ohio State Medical Association, Ohio Urological
Society, Ohio Veterans United, Oklahoma Podiatric Medical
Association, Oklahoma State Medical Association, Oklahoma
State Orthopaedic Society, Oklahoma State Urologic
Association.
Old North State Medical Society, Oregon Medical
Association, Oregon Podiatric Medical Association, Partners
in Care Foundation, Partnership for Drug Free North Carolina,
Pennsylvania BIO, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business &
Industry, Pennsylvania Medical Society, Pennsylvania
Orthopaedic Society, Personal Coaching & Psychotherapy for
Women, PhRMA, Premier healthcare alliance, RARE Project,
RetireSafe, Rhode Island Medical Society, Rio Grande
Foundation, New Mexico, Rocky Mountain Stroke Center, Rural
Health IT, Sanfilippo Foundation for Children, Society for
Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
Society for Vascular Surgery, Society of Gynecologic
Oncology, Society of Urologic Oncology, South Carolina BIO,
South Carolina HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force, South
Carolina Medical Association, South Carolina Orthopaedic
Association, South Carolina Podiatric Medical Association,
South Carolina Urological Association, South Dakota Podiatric
Medical Association, South Dakota State Orthopaedic Society,
South Jersey Geriatric Care PC, South Jersey Senior
Networking Group, Southeastern Medical Device Association
(SEMDA), Southwest Michigan Pharmacist Association, Stockton
Center on Successful Aging, Syndicus Scientific Services,
Team Sanfilippo Foundation, Tennessee Medical Association,
Tennessee Orthopaedic Society.
Tennessee Podiatric Medical Association, Texas Healthcare &
Bioscience Institute, Texas Podiatric Medical Association,
Texas Urological Society, The Center for Health Care
Services, The G.R.E.E.N. Foundation, The National Grange,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Pain Foundation, Urology
Society of New Jersey, Utah Medical Association, Utah
Podiatric Medical Association, Utah State Orthopaedic
Society, Vascular Society of New Jersey, Vermont Medical
Society, Vermont Podiatric Medical Association, Veterans
Health Council, VHA Inc., Vietnam Veterans of America,
Virginia Biotechnology Association.
Virginia Podiatric Medical Association, Visiting Nurse
Association of Ohio, Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical
Association, Washington Free Clinic Association, Washington
Osteopathic Medical Association, Washington State Podiatric
Medical Association, Washington Rheumatology Association,
Washington State Medical Association, Washington State
Urology Society, WERAK Foundation, West Virginia Academy of
Otolaryngology, West Virginia Chapter of the American College
of Cardiology, West Virginia Manufacturer's Association, West
Virginia Orthopaedic Society, West Virginia State Medical
Association, William ``Hicks'' Anderson Community Center,
Wisconsin Hospital Association, Wisconsin Urological Society,
Wyoming State Grange, Women Against Prostate Cancer.
____
Health Care Freedom Coalition,
March 19, 2012.
Dear Member of Congress: On behalf of the 26 undersigned
members of the Health Care Freedom Coalition and our ally
organizations, representing industry, policy, taxpayer, and
medical professional groups, and their millions of patients
and members, we are writing to express our concerns regarding
the Independent Payment Advisory Board provision of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the disastrous
impact of its implementation on both patient care as well as
Congressional authority.
Section 3403 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (PPACA) established the Independent Payment Advisory
Board (IPAB) to reduce Medicare spending. But ultimately this
panel of 15 independent, unelected bureaucrats with
unilateral authority and whose decisions are freed from
judicial and administrative review will most certainly cut
payments to physicians under Medicare, will limit patient
access to, and quality of, medical care.
Independent, Unelected, Politically-Appointed Bureaucrats
Of the 15 members, twelve will be appointed by the
President, and the law actually prevents practicing medical
professionals--like doctors--from membership. The rules
almost guarantee that the members will be academics. The
highly-paid bureaucrats will likely be paid more than many of
the doctors they are second-guessing. These six-year terms
come with an anticipated paycheck of $165,300--more than the
average family practice physician earns in many cities in
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.
Undemocratic, Unilateral Authority and Lack of Redress or Review
The decisions cannot be challenged in the courts and are
freed from the normal administrative rules process--require
no public notice, public comment or public review. IPAB
``recommendations'' carry the full force of the law, unless
2/3 of the House and Senate vote to override. In essence,
Congress has given this Board the authority to legislate.
Decisions Will Impact Physicians & Patients
The board is specifically forbidden from ``any
recommendations to ration health care'', but PPACA fails to
define the word ``ration.'' Instead, it allows IPAB to pay
doctors reimbursement rates below costs, which in essence
would constrict a physician's ability to treat patients.
Longitudinal studies already show that about one-fourth of
doctors already refuse new Medicare patients,
[[Page H1470]]
and as many as 50% restrict the services they are willing to
perform for their current patients. And this is expected to
worsen, as even more doctors will be unable to afford to take
Medicare patients.
Absolves Congress from Oversight & Decision-Making
IPAB is intended to take tough decisions about Medicare
spending out of the purview of Congress, in effect,
delegating away its legislative responsibilities under the
Constitution to either a 15 member Board, or by default, the
Secretary of Health and Human Services. IPAB was simply
created to absolve Congress of having to make decisions that
directly impact the quality and access of care for Seniors,
and also insulate them from having to make tough decisions.
The ill-advised quest for ``cost effectiveness'' is doomed
to failure. As we have seen in Great Britain, any de facto
price controls are likely to do nothing to control the growth
of spending. Further, this one-size-fits-all approach to
dictating medical care in a country of more than 300 million
is ill-advised.
If Congress believes that these decisions handed over to
IPAB are too much of a hot political potato for it to decide,
then perhaps it is a clear indication that this is the wrong
course of action.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Serkes, CEO & Chairman Doctor Patient Medical
Association; Grover Norquist, President Americans for
Tax Reform; Dean Clancy Legislative Counsel & VP,
Health Care Policy Freedom Works; Jim Martin, Chairman
60 Plus Association; Heather Higgins, President & CEO
Independent Women's Voice; Colin A. Hanna, President
Let Freedom Ring; Ken Hoagland, Chairman Restore
America's Voice Foundation; Christopher M. Jaarda,
President American Healthcare Education Coalition; HSA
Coalition; Tim Phillips, President Americans For
Prosperity; Amy Ridenour, Chairman The National Center
for Public Policy Research; Mario H. Lopez, President
Hispanic Leadership Fund; David Williams, President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance; Andrew Langer, President
Institute for Liberty; Jane Orient, MD, Executive
Director Association of American Physicians & Surgeons;
Eric Novak, MD US Health Freedom Coalition; Andrew F.
Quinlan, President Center for Freedom and Prosperity;
Grace-Marie Turner, President Galen Institute; Hal C.
Scherz, MD, FACS, FAAP President & CEO Docs 4 Patient
Care; Amy Kremer, Chairman Tea Party Express; Penny
Nance, CEO and President Concerned Women for America;
Dr. Joseph L. Bridges, President & CEO The Seniors
Coalition; Pete Sepp, Executive Vice President National
Taxpayers Union; Judson Phillips Tea Party Nation;
Stephani Scruggs, President Unite In Action, Inc; Ana
Puig, Co-Founder Kitchen Table Patriots.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LEVIN. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I hope everybody's been listening to this. What has become clear is
this: the Republicans have a 3-act play. First, repeal IPAB; next,
repeal the rest of health care reform; and, finally, repeal Medicare.
It is so hypocritical to come forth and say that the efforts of
Republicans is to protect Medicare when the purpose of it is to destroy
it. That's what would happen if they had prevailed before. That's what
would happen if they prevail today with their voucher plan.
So the third act really came forth before the first act. They rolled
out, yesterday, their budget plan that essentially would repeal
Medicare, would destroy it. There would be a voucher and, over time,
the end of Medicare.
It's an essential commitment to the seniors of this country, and we
Democrats are determined to thwart every effort to destroy it.
Now, as to the first act, repeal IPAB. You know, it's interesting
that Medicare is a major instrumentality for ensuring that over time
the costs of Medicare are brought under control, protecting the health
care opportunities of seniors. Indeed, there have been efforts already
under the Affordable Care Act to bring under control the costs of
Medicare, to make sure it survives.
So being an essential part of controlling health care costs over the
long term, the Republican proposal, essentially, would go in the
opposite direction. And that's why the CBO, last year projected--and I
want everybody to listen to this--that health care costs would jump by
39 percent under the Republican plan to end the Medicare guarantee.
That's why 300 economists have said that health reform puts into place,
essentially, every cost-containment provision policy that analysts have
considered. It's because of those policies that CBO has given this
estimate that IPAB isn't going to be triggered until some time after
2022.
So what happens is, the Republicans come forth with the repeal of
IPAB as a first step towards repealing Medicare when they have never
presented an alternative in terms of the Affordable Care Act. So,
today, we hear all the scare tactics about a board whose operation
effectively won't be triggered for a decade. That's a scare tactic that
is not worthy of this floor, so I urge very much that we oppose.
It's interesting that the Republican budget has a cap that is more
severe, if you want to put it that way, more strenuous than the
provision that relates to IPAB. And so they come forth, and they say
that IPAB, which won't be triggered until 2022, is something that they
should oppose, while they want to put in place a budget this year that
would have a more severe cap than is in IPAB. Let me also say the
notion that there is some agency here that could act without any role
for Congress is simply untrue. It's not true. You shouldn't say it.
We have an opportunity, once IPAB goes into operation, to review any
recommendation that comes forth, and to replace it, as long as the
various targets are met. So I urge very much that we reject this
proposal in part because the repeal, in and of itself, I think, is a
mistake but mainly because of what the aim is here, and that has been
so clear from the debate, because people who come here on the
Republican side, some of them talk about IPAB; some don't even discuss
IPAB. They talk about the Affordable Care Act.
{time} 1720
The polling data we have is essentially relating to the Affordable
Care Act as well as to IPAB. I think the more people understand what
has been going on, the more they see the benefits of health care
reform, the more they will be supportive of it. We're going to take
that case to the American people.
Let me just give you a few numbers that everyone should know about
ACA.
It's been only 2 years since it was signed into law, but Americans
are already receiving the benefits of lower costs and better coverage.
Let me give you a few facts:
86 million Americans have received one or more free preventative
services such as checkups and cancer screenings;
105 million Americans no longer have a lifetime limit on their
coverage;
Up to 17 million children with preexisting conditions can no longer
be denied coverage by insurers. Up to 17 million kids. You repeal this
Act, you put them into total jeopardy;
2\1/2\ million additional young adults up to 26 now have health
insurance through their parents' plan. If you had succeeded in past
efforts of repealing health care reform, those 2\1/2\ million people
would have been out in the cold;
Also, 5.1 million seniors in the doughnut hole have saved $3.2
billion on their prescription drugs, an average of $635 per senior. If
you had succeeded with repeal, over 5 million seniors would have been
essentially with increased costs;
Over 2 million seniors have had a free annual wellness visit under
Medicare;
Already under the small business health care tax credit, over 350,000
small employers have used it to help provide health insurance for 2
million workers.
Republicans come here using scare tactics about IPAB, 10 years away
from being triggered according to CBO. You essentially say repeal
health care reform though you've never had a comprehensive plan to
replace it. That's been the bankruptcy of your position.
I finish, reminding everybody that we're the only industrial nation
on the globe which has tens of millions of people who go to bed every
day without a stitch of health insurance coverage.
The administration's brief before the Supreme Court has illustrated
what the result is in terms of the added costs of the uninsured who go
to emergency rooms. Billions and billions of dollars that are
essentially shifted to people who have insurance and shifted to
taxpayers who have to cover the costs of emergency coverage.
So we come here with a passion. We worked hard to support and to pass
this act. We worked hard to put it together. A major piece of
legislation like that always needs continued work, but not
[[Page H1471]]
its repeal. That would be a grave, grave, grave mistake.
So I think it's time to pull down the curtain on this three-act play
of the House Republicans trying first to repeal IPAB, then to repeal
the rest of health care reform, and then to repeal Medicare.
Fortunately, if we're mistaken and the majority passes it here, it will
deserve a death in the Senate of the United States.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield myself 15 seconds just to say that
our Republican alternative, our Republican health care bill, prevented
unlawful recisions, had no lifetime caps on coverage, did not deny
coverage to those with preexisting conditions, and was the only bill
that was scored by CBO as lowering premiums. Also, we did it without
spending $2 trillion and 2,400 pages and did not create a board of 15
unelected bureaucrats.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished chairman of the
Health Subcommittee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger).
Mr. HERGER. Madam Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5.
Today's debate goes to the heart of the question of what kind of
health care system we want to have. House Republicans believe the
solution to making health care more affordable and strengthening the
Medicare program is more freedom, empowering innovation and competition
to reduce costs and improve quality, giving seniors the opportunity to
choose the health care that's best for them.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board, IPAB, represents a very
different approach to controlling health care costs, a one-size-fits-
all plan in which unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats decide what
kind of health care you should get. Physicians, patient advocates, and
respected scholars, Democrats and Republicans alike, have warned that
the IPAB threatens access to care for seniors and people with
disabilities. The board has the authority to meet and make decisions in
secret without considering the perspective of patients and their
doctors and without judicial review. Madam Chairman, this is the wrong
approach. IPAB must be repealed.
H.R. 5 also includes important reforms to reduce the cost of
frivolous medical lawsuits. The President's health care overhaul has
not fulfilled his promise to reduce health insurance premiums by
$2,500, but commonsense medical liability reforms will truly bring down
health costs both for American families and the Medicare program.
I urge the passage of this legislation.
Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 3 minutes to the distinguished member of our
committee, Mr. Blumenauer, from the proud State of Oregon.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Chairman, I come to the floor coming from the
Budget Committee, where my Republican colleagues are busy at work
breaking the commitment that we all made to one another establishing a
path forward on deficit reduction. It wasn't just a commitment that was
made amongst legislative leaders; we wrote it into law. Now they're
breaking that commitment.
They are involved with the budgets that are going to actually reduce
health care in this country, and yet they would come to the floor and
ask us to get exorcised about something that may happen 10 years from
now.
I find the language curious. You could just as easily say, instead of
the Supreme Court, you could talk about nine unelected judicial hacks
meeting in secret that have no judicial review. They're a power unto
themselves.
Get a grip, people.
IPAB comes into play only if we are unable to deal with controlling
costs. Remember, our Republican friends--I voted against it--set up the
SGR so that we have to have a doc fix every year, putting cost control
on automatic pilot, because they didn't have the gumption year after
year to deal with the policy changes to make a difference.
We have MedPAC for Medicare that gives us recommendations, but
Congress blinks.
{time} 1730
What's going to happen maybe 10 years from now, if costs are not
under control, then there will be 15 people who are experts, who are
recommended by congressional leaders, nominated by the President,
confirmed by the Senate, who will make recommendations if Congress
doesn't do its job. Then Congress will be able to take those
recommendations and put in place alternatives. Nothing is going to
happen here without Congress having the ability to match and do better.
But because Congress historically hasn't had a backbone and has
failed miserably in areas of cost control and reform, we put into the
health care reform act a fail-safe, not unlike what we've had to do to
take base closing out of the hands of the logrolling in Congress and
have a streamlined procedure. This is a fail-safe. This makes sense.
It's not going to happen unless Congress fails in its task.
I strongly suggest that what we ought to do--rather than trying to
unravel health care reform on this floor and in the Budget Committee--
is accelerate it.
The Acting CHAIR (Ms. Herrera Beutler). The time of the gentleman has
expired.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Remember, the elements in the health care reform,
when you unwind them, virtually without exception, have their roots in
a bipartisan consensus of what needs to happen to make our health care
system more efficient.
Many of these pilot projects, these demonstrations have actually
already been at work in States across the country, including some that
have Republican Governors. We're doing some of it in the State of
Oregon. It has the dreaded mandate, which was a Republican think tank
option that was an alternative to HillaryCare 20 years ago, and, in
fact, was put in place by Governor Romney, who is going to be, by all
accounts, the Republican standard bearer for President.
This is an example of Congress at its worst, making up a problem,
attacking something that would help us do our job better. They are
trying to demonize it in a way that you could do with virtually any
other board or commission, ignoring the safeguards, ignoring the fact
that the statute says specifically that it shall not ration. Instead,
they are willing to allow insurance companies to ration and ignore the
need for reform.
I strongly urge rejection of this misguided proposal. Let's get back
to work. Let's do our job. It will never come into play if Congress
does its job, and Congress will always have the last say.
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member
of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentlewoman from Kansas (Ms.
Jenkins).
Ms. JENKINS. I thank the chairman for yielding.
The President's health care law is chock full of pitfalls, tax
increases, government overreaches, and newly created bureaucracies. But
perhaps the most outrageous and dangerous manifestation is the
Independent Payment Advisory Board.
This board of 15 arbitrarily appointed bureaucrats is charged with
slashing Medicare reimbursement rates, which will drastically impact
the medicine and procedures available to our seniors.
The IPAB has no mandate to improve patient care. Its mandate is to
meet a budget, and it may ultimately lead to the rationing of care for
our senior citizens. The IPAB gives these bureaucrats unprecedented
power with no accountability, no judicial review, and no requirement
for transparency. The simple fact is that the American people don't
want and certainly don't need bureaucrats coming between us and our
doctors.
Today we ask for the repeal of the IPAB, but we will also make up for
any amount of lost savings this absurd board would have been able to
find by strengthening our health care system with honest and
straightforward medical liability reform.
Frivolous lawsuits have caused malpractice insurance rates to
skyrocket. As a result, the price of health care for patients has
followed the same trajectory, and we've seen dramatic health care
access issues for our rural communities.
If we repeal the IPAB and enact these commonsense medical liability
reforms, this legislation will reduce the
[[Page H1472]]
deficit by over $45 billion, according to the CBO. These are
commonsense, bipartisan, fiscally responsible reforms that strengthen
the doctor-patient relationship and put the American people back in
charge of their health care decisions.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield 4 minutes to a member of our Ways and Means
Committee, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind).
Mr. KIND. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding me this
time.
Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 5.
Two years ago, the Affordable Care Act was passed, and I was a proud
supporter of that legislation. Not because I thought it was the perfect
bill, but because I thought it gave us the tools and the potential to
reform a health care system that was in desperate need of reform, of
putting things in place that could deliver better quality of care that
is given for a better price, and also increasing access to health
insurance throughout the country, and to finally address the 52 million
uninsured Americans that we have living in our own communities.
Yet the ultimate verdict on whether health care reform works or fails
for everyone in this country is whether we can figure out creative ways
of bringing down those costs in health care.
One thing I do know under the health care reform bill that has been
enacted is that in my congressional district in western Wisconsin, this
year alone 4,200 young adults are able to stay on their parents' health
care plan; whereas, before they couldn't. What a relief that has been
to those families, making sure that those kids, many of whom are in
school, can stay on the family plan.
Of the 5,800 seniors this year who have fallen into the doughnut
hole, they are seeing a cost savings of roughly $610 apiece because of
the 50 percent price discount they now get under this legislation.
That's not peanuts in western Wisconsin. There are 86,000 seniors now
that are able to go and get preventive care services without copays,
without deductibles, without out-of-pocket expenses. We want them to go
in and get those tests so something worse doesn't happen to them, which
will inevitably drive up the cost for everyone in the Medicare system.
There are 15,000 small businesses in western Wisconsin that now
qualify for tax credits for providing health care to their employees to
make it more economically feasible for them to do what they want to do,
and that is provide health care coverage for their workers. That 35
percent tax credit goes up to 50 percent in 2014, when we're able to
move forward on the creation of the health insurance exchanges. And
39,000 children in western Wisconsin who have a preexisting condition
can no longer be denied healthcare coverage in their lives.
This is the right thing to do, and yet we have to figure out some
cost-containment measures to make sure that it's sustainable and
affordable in the future.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board is a backstop in that effort.
It's not the first thing we go to in order to find cost savings, but if
costs do exceed target growth rates, the Independent Payment Advisory
Board is able to come forward--with Congress--with recommended cost
savings that will be implemented only if Congress refuses to act
ourselves. And that has been the problem around here for too long. We
get recommendations from MedPAC and other entities on where we can find
cost savings, but because of the inability of Congress to stand up to
some powerful special interests, quite frankly, it's very difficult for
this institution to act by itself in order to implement those cost
savings.
I find it a little bit humorous that my colleagues on the other side
are so fearful of this payment advisory board making some decisions
when it comes to the rising health care costs when they feel perfectly
comfortable turning these decisions over to private insurance companies
who are motivated by profit and trying to maximize their margin of gain
by providing health care coverage. I think that's nonsensical.
Ultimately, if health care reform is going to work, we have to change
the way health care is delivered in this country so that it is more
economical in how we pay for it, so that it is value- and not volume-
based anymore.
I come from an area of the country with health care providers that
have models of care that are highly integrated, they are very
coordinated, they are patient-focused, and they are producing some of
the best results in the Nation. Yet a Medicare recipient in La Crosse,
Wisconsin, receives on average about $5,000 a year compared to $17,000
in Miami. Yet the results in La Crosse are much better than the results
in Miami, and there are studies out there showing there is over-
utilization in the delivery of health care, which is driving up costs
for everyone.
The Acting CHAIR (Ms. Herrera Beutler). The time of the gentleman has
expired.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield to the gentleman 2 additional minutes.
{time} 1740
Mr. KIND. I thank the gentleman.
The studies show that one out of every three health care dollars is
going to tests, they are going to procedures, they are going to things
that don't work. They're not improving health care. And oftentimes,
because of the over-utilization that patients are receiving, many of
these patients are being left worse off rather than better off. So
we've got to reform the delivery system, which the Affordable Care Act
puts in place. But ultimately, we have to change the way we pay for
health care. We need to end and destroy the fee-for-service system,
which is all volume-based payments, and move to a value-based
reimbursement system. The IPAB commission can help us get to that
promised land.
And this has been a bipartisan issue for a long time. Dr. Frist has
been talking about payment reform that's value-based for as long as I
can remember. My own former Governor, former HHS Secretary Tommy
Thompson, has said repeatedly that if we do anything, make sure that we
change the payment system so it is value- and not volume-based anymore.
Mark McClellan, President Bush's CMS Director, the same thing. So
there's been bipartisan recognition that we have to do it. IPAB gives
us an opportunity to do that, but it's not the final say. They merely
come forward with their recommended cost savings and challenges the
Congress to come up with an alternative cost savings.
So, folks, this is gut-check time. This is whether we are serious
about trying to bend the cost curve. Their plan would get rid of
Medicare. It turns it into a private voucher and a voucher that's
inadequate to address the costs that seniors face. They don't reform
the way health care is delivered. They're not reforming how we pay for
health care. They're merely changing who pays for health care under
Medicare, and those costs are going to be shifted on the backs of our
seniors. That's no way of reforming a health care system that's in need
of reform, that only address the Medicare portion within our budget.
What we need to be working on and what the Affordable Care Act gives
us the tools to do is to reform the entire health care system, both
public programs and private programs. And that's something that we
fundamentally have to do to get our economy back on track, creating
good-paying jobs. Because if you just repeal it now, we go back to the
status quo, which means more uninsured, higher costs, and our
businesses are less able to compete globally. I encourage my colleagues
to reject H.R. 5.
Mr. CAMP. I yield myself 15 seconds.
I would just say that with regard to IPAB, the 15 unelected people
appointed by the President, Congress can't simply reject the IPAB
findings. Congress has to reject and find those savings somewhere else
within the program, unlike the Base Closure Commission, which some
Members have cited. And these are all people appointed by the
President.
So with that, I would yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of
the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr.
Paulsen).
Mr. PAULSEN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Chair, the very foundation of our health care system is that
relationship between a patient and their doctor. But the President's
new health care law inserts government bureaucracy in the middle of
that longstanding
[[Page H1473]]
relationship. One clear example of this is the establishment of the
Independent Payment Advisory Board, this 15-member board of unelected,
unaccountable bureaucrats who will soon have the authority to dictate
our Nation's Medicare policy by effectively deciding what health care
seniors can receive. And since its inception, IPAB has been the focus
of vocal and sustained opposition from doctors, physicians, and
patients because it does threaten to reduce beneficiaries' access to
treatments and services that are included in the Medicare program.
Madam Chair, the repeal of IPAB has strong bipartisan support. Given
the widespread concern about the impact that IPAB will have to deny
quality health care services, it's no wonder that about 350
organizations that represent veterans, seniors, employers small and
large, as well as doctors and physicians and consumers in all 50
States, support its repeal. Although a majority of us here in Congress
have registered our concerns about IPAB and support its repeal, it is
the American public, including many folks from my community, who remain
the most vocal about ending this program before it is implemented.
The American people have every reason to be worried about this IPAB
board. The unchecked powers of IPAB have been explained by my
colleagues already at length. Simply put, IPAB is a dangerous new
government agency that will be made up of unelected bureaucrats with no
oversight, no accountability, and no recourse for seniors to appeal any
of IPAB's decisions. The decision-making, the deliberations, the
meetings that IPAB hold do not have to be held in public.
Madam Chair, rather than endangering Medicare beneficiaries, we
should be empowering them. Rather than making decisions behind closed
doors, we should be having these discussions in public in our hearing
rooms between doctors, patients, and consumers. Let's do the right
thing and protect American seniors by repealing this overreaching
provision.
Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas, a
member of our committee, Mr. Doggett.
Mr. DOGGETT. I thank the gentleman.
Many an American family has been wrecked by soaring health care
costs. We know it's been a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. We
know that spiraling health care costs have been a leading cause of
credit card debt, and now Republicans have continued their sustained
effort to wreck the Affordable Care Act.
As we have been witnessing at the same time that this debate is going
on within the Budget Committee, on which I also serve, the Republican
plan to end the guaranteed benefits of Medicare, they think that our
seniors pay too little, so they offer a voucher plan that would result
in our seniors having to pay much more for their health care. They
would tell the senior or the individual with disabilities, Go out and
fish for insurance with this voucher. But they won't find any fish
biting, though they will continue to be bitten with rising health care
costs. That's why President Lyndon Johnson created Medicare in the
first place, because private insurance companies weren't interested in
covering the old and the infirm.
Today's approach is the same approach that Republicans took last year
when they had their signature accomplishment. Right in the first month
of their takeover of this Congress, they came out here with this page-
and-a-half bill that I call the ``12 platitudes.'' They repealed what
they said they didn't like, and they came forward with 12 lines of what
they said they would replace the Affordable Care Act with. But all
we've gotten since then are bills that began after they did the total
repeal--repealing individual sections, like school health care clinics,
like this proposal dealing with the question of health care costs.
We know they don't like it. We know they don't like President Obama
and anything that he is for. They tell us everything that is wrong with
the Affordable Care Act, but they sure can't come up with a better idea
that they have the courage to bring to a vote in the Ways and Means
Committee or bring to a vote on the floor of this House. It's all about
what they're against, but they haven't brought any of the 12 platitudes
that they approved last year into a legislative form to deal with this
issue of spiraling cost for our government and families or to deal with
any other aspect in the Affordable Care Act.
Now, I have to say, quite frankly, that I wish the Affordable Care
Act were as good as they think it is bad. It's not. It is a compromise
of a compromise--it has many inadequacies--but compared to the
Republican alternative of doing nothing and compared to the broken
health care system that has wrecked so many American families who are
faced with a health care crisis, this approach is far superior.
This board's opponents tell us that Congress should be able to make
all these decisions. Well, I've served on the Ways and Means Committee
and on the Health Subcommittee previously for a number of years. I wish
it could be so, and I think we could play a more constructive role.
But, frankly, the history is that Congress hasn't done a very good job
of controlling costs. When we have taken steps to control costs, as we
did with the $500 billion in cost control that we put into the
Affordable Care Act that increases the solvency, extends the solvency
of the Medicare trust fund by 12 years, all we've gotten is attack and
criticism from them for the steps that we took that did limit cost.
So I don't view this aspect of the Affordable Care Act as necessarily
the best way to do it or the only way to do it. But when all they offer
us is nothing except vouchering Medicare for our seniors and similar, I
think we should stick with the reform that we have until a better
alternative is presented, and that alternative is not being presented
tonight.
Republicans don't have a plan to make the hard decisions to lower
health care costs. They just want our seniors, individuals with
disabilities, and families across America to pay more so that they can
preserve all these tax breaks for the wealthiest and most economically
successful people in our society and, for all of those corporations
that export jobs abroad, to continue to provide them incentives to do
just that.
{time} 1750
I believe that this bill should be rejected just like their other
repeal efforts until they come up and present on the floor a better
idea, and I don't think they have one. They just have all the retreads
of the Bush-Cheney years. Until then, I say stick with the Affordable
Care Act.
Mr. CAMP. I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of the Ways and
Means Committee, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam).
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Chairman, thank you for yielding.
Madam Chairman, did you notice something? The gentleman from Oregon--
and I took a note and I'm kind of paraphrasing, but he basically was
arguing from the other side of the aisle that IPAB, this cost control
board, will basically never come into play as long as Congress does its
job. During the health care hearing that we had in the Ways and Means
Committee, the gentleman from Wisconsin on the other side of the aisle
characterized IPAB as a leap of faith, and now we just heard from the
gentleman from Texas who acknowledged it's not the best solution, but
let's stick with it.
Here's the problem with sticking with this failed solution, Madam
Chairman. They're asking seniors to bear the brunt of this.
We had an expert witness, Madam Chairman, who came into the Ways and
Means Committee, and I posed this question to him. I said: There's no
rationing per se. It's defined out of the bill, although it's not
defined in the bill. But the bill says there can't be rationing, but
can there be per se rationing? In other words, if coverage is denied
based on cost, is that rationing?
And he said: Absolutely, Congressman.
So think about what the other side of the aisle is asking. Take a
leap of faith, a leap of blind faith, that somehow Congress is going to
come up with the remedy and that seniors are not going to be held at
risk.
The gentleman from Texas said that we're only here criticizing
things. Let me tell him, Madam Chairman, what we are for.
We're for the repeal of IPAB. We're for the repeal of something that
is
[[Page H1474]]
going to put such downward pressures on seniors, it will make people's
heads spin. What we've got to do is make sure that we put remedies in
place that empower seniors, that create patient-centered health care
and don't deny care and put more out-of-pocket costs on the backs of
seniors.
We can't repeal this thing fast enough. We need to vote ``aye'' and
get this done.
Mr. LEVIN. It's curious. You're talking about, according to CBO, a
board whose operation would be triggered in 2022. You come here and
scare people. It doesn't work. You talk about rationing. You're talking
about an operation 10 years from now.
Right now, health care is being rationed. You have 50-plus million
people who have no insurance, 50-plus million people who have no
insurance at all, and you haven't come up with a bill that would
address that.
I am proud to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Andrews), who has been so key in the health care debates.
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friend for yielding and for his compliment.
When our mothers and fathers go to the doctor or the hospital, we
want to be sure they get the best health care that can possibly be
delivered and that their doctor and their family think they ought to
get; and that health care should never be subject to the strategic plan
of any insurance company or the whims of the marketplace.
Because it is not profitable, as a general rule, to take care of the
aged and the infirm, President Johnson and this Congress, in 1965,
created the Medicare guarantee, and they guaranteed that our seniors
and people with disability would get the care they need irrespective of
the whims of the marketplace. The majority brings this bill to the
floor today because they raise fears about what might happen to the
Medicare guarantee 10 years from now.
There is a very important question about Medicare before this
Congress, but it's coming about 8 days from now, not 10 years from now,
when the majority will bring yet another budget that systematically
unravels and ends the Medicare guarantee.
Call it what they will, when you have a system where the healthiest
and the most prosperous and, in some cases, the youngest retirees can
opt into a private insurance system, those that will be left in regular
Medicare will be the aged and the infirm and the poor. Medicare will
then go the way of Medicaid, which their budget cuts by nearly 40
percent, according to some estimates.
Frankly, as a diversion from the real threat to Medicare, which is
yet another Republican budget coming to this floor 8 days from now that
will end the Medicare guarantee, we now have a series of wild
accusations about the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which the
Congressional Budget Office says, based on current cost performance,
would have no role for at least 10 years.
So we hear all these things about these unelected bureaucrats making
decisions. I would say, Madam Chair and fellow House Members, consider
the source.
Two years ago, we heard that everyone in America would be in a
government-run health plan if the Affordable Care Act passed. It hasn't
happened.
Two years ago, we heard that every small business in America would be
forced to buy unaffordable health insurance for their employees. It
hasn't happened.
Two years ago, we heard that every American family would have to bear
a crushing tax increase because of the Affordable Care Act. It hasn't
happened.
Two years ago, we heard there would be drastic cuts in benefits to
Medicare beneficiaries because of the Affordable Care Act. Not only has
it not happened, benefits have increased. Seniors pay a lower share of
their prescription drug costs and Medicare pays more. Seniors have
access to annual preventive checkups without copays and deductibles. It
hasn't happened.
Finally, lest we forget, those who say the IPAB is such a virulent
threat to Medicare and said there were death panels in the Affordable
Care Act, where are they? Can anyone on the other side point to one
person who has gone before a government committee and been denied
health care since the Affordable Care Act and as a result of that act?
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield the gentleman 2 additional minutes.
Mr. ANDREWS. It is a fiction--it is a distortion--and here we are at
it again.
Now, in the first 2 weeks of their majority, the majority came here
and made a promise to the American people. They said: Yes, we're going
to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but then we're going to
replace the Affordable Care Act. It was repeal and replace.
We've had the repeal as a recurring scenario on the floor. This is
just another chapter in it. Where's the replace?
For the provision that says that people 26 and under can stay on
their parents' plans, if you repeal the Affordable Care Act, where is
your bill to replace it?
For the provision that says that no person can be denied health
insurance or charged more for it if they're diabetic or if they have
breast cancer or asthma, where is their replacement?
For the provision that says that seniors who fall into the doughnut
hole get significantly greater help in paying for their prescription
drugs, where is their replacement?
For the provision that says that small business people who
voluntarily provide health insurance to their employees get a
significant tax cut, where is their replacement?
There's a saying that our friend from Texas says about being all hat
and no horse. The majority is all repeal and no replace.
So this is yet another example of a debate that's tired, worn out,
and seen its day. The Affordable Care Act is helping improve the lives
of Americans. An empty political debate like this one isn't, and
certainly ending the Medicare guarantee, as the Republicans will try to
do in 8 days, is the wrong way to go, and so is this bill.
{time} 1800
Mr. CAMP. I yield myself 30 seconds.
I would just say to my friend from New Jersey who says ``consider the
source''--and the source is the American people--73 percent have
expressed concern that the Medicare cuts recommended by IPAB would not
only go into effect without congressional approval, but would also hurt
their ability to get the Medicare services they need.
Let me just say I hear from my friends on the other side how
important IPAB is to the integrity of Medicare. It is not effective
until 2022. And let me just say with regard to the Medicare cuts that
are in your health care bill, most of them don't take place until 2014.
And I would just say that our health care bill included provisions that
covered preexisting conditions, included many of the provisions the
gentleman mentioned, and we did it without a tax increase, and we did
it as the only health care bill that was scored by the Congressional
Budget Office as decreasing premiums for American citizens.
With that, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of the Ways
and Means Committee, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black).
Mrs. BLACK. Let's, first of all, start with the simple fact that no
one in this room can deny, and that is there are 10,000 baby boomers
that are added to the rolls each day. Medicare's exponential growth
will cause the program to go bankrupt in 10 years. The Congressional
Budget Office and the Medicare and Medicaid trustees have been ringing
these alarm bells about Medicare's dwindling finances, and we must act
now.
Over 46 million Americans rely on Medicare for their health care, and
something must be done soon to save this program for future
generations. Unfortunately, the President's budget proposal failed to
address Medicare's grim future. Instead, what we have on the law books
now is a 15-member board that is charged with cutting costs and denying
care to our seniors. The Independent Payment Advisory Board established
in the health care law would cut physician payment rates, forcing many
doctors to stop seeing Medicare patients. This board makes senior care
harder to access and
[[Page H1475]]
puts bureaucrats between the patients and their doctors.
Now, it's been said here today there's not another plan. Let me
correct that. There is another way. As a matter of fact, there is a
bipartisan way. The plan for Medicare that is a bipartisan proposal
does three things. It does not make any changes for those at or near
retirement, it offers guaranteed coverage options to seniors regardless
of their preexisting conditions or health history, and it is financed
by a premium-support payment that's adjusted to provide additional
financial assistance to those who are low-income and less-healthy
seniors, and more wealthy seniors will pay.
So the choice is clear: we can continue to stick our heads in the
sand and go on with a program that takes away choice for our seniors,
limits their care and supports the status quo, or we can improve a plan
to save Medicare and provide more choice. For me, the choice is clear.
Mr. LEVIN. Let me just say it is strange to say you save something by
destroying it. That is 1984 in 2012.
I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey.
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friend from Michigan for yielding, and I want
to comment on something, Madam Chair, that my dear friend from
Michigan, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, said. As has
become part of the Republican catechism, he talked about the so-called
Medicare cuts that were in the Affordable Care Act. It is correct that
in the Affordable Care Act we reduced Medicare spending by $495 billion
by cutting corporate welfare to insurance companies, by cutting
overpayments to medical equipment suppliers, and cracking down on fraud
and abuse of the Medicare program. The majority must agree with these
ideas because in the budget they are marking up today in the Budget
Committee, every penny of that $495 billion in savings is included in
the majority's budget. The majority must agree with these savings, and
I commend them for it, because the budget resolution that passed here
last year that essentially every member of the majority voted for
included every penny of that $495 billion in savings.
So I would ask my friends on the other side that if they're so in
objection to those cuts, why did you vote for them last year? And why
are they in your budget this year? I would be happy to yield.
Mr. CAMP. Since the gentleman has asked, we are using those dollars
to protect the Medicare program. You used those dollars to create a new
entitlement which we can't afford.
Mr. ANDREWS. Reclaiming my time.
Mr. CAMP. Certainly you would reclaim your time.
Mr. ANDREWS. Because the gentleman's point was there was something
wrong with the cuts. Obviously, he would contradict that point. Every
dollar of the cuts in the Affordable Care Act have been embraced,
supported and voted for by the Republican majority for which you
deserve credit.
Mr. CAMP. I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished Member from
Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee).
Mr. NUNNELEE. Madam Chair, I thank the chairman for his leadership in
this area. I thank you for yielding.
I find it fascinating as I listen to the debate that even while
discussion is going on on the budget, we're hearing accusations that
say Republicans want to end Medicare. In reality, 2 years ago when the
national health care bill passed, that ended Medicare as we know it.
That cut half a trillion dollars out of Medicare spending. That put in
place this unelected group of bureaucrats that will make health care
decisions for seniors.
And I hear this afternoon suggestions that say, well, it may not even
go in effect for 10 years; let's wait and see. Well, we have a saying
in Mississippi: Do you know when is the best time to kill a snake?
That's the first time you see it. This IPAB is a snake, and the best
time to kill it is today. The club and the vehicle by which we'll kill
it is this bill, and that's why I'm going to vote for it, and I urge
all of my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. LEVIN. It is now my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay).
Mr. CLAY. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding.
Madam Chair, my friends on the other side of the aisle want to repeal
the Affordable Care Act. Since straight-out repeal didn't work, they
are trying to dismantle it bit by bit. I'd like to focus on the effects
of the ACA, or the Affordable Care Act, on women's health.
The ACA is the greatest improvement for women's health in decades.
The health care needs of women are greater. Historically, women have
played a central role in coordinating health care for family members.
Here are just some of the ways that the ACA, a bill that I am proud to
have helped pass, will improve women's health:
Women will not have to pay more than men for the same insurance
policies. Imagine that. Women will not be denied coverage because they
are sick or have preexisting conditions. Oh, that's an improvement.
Women will be guaranteed preventive services with no deductibles or co-
pays. More low-income women will have timely access to family-planning
services. Wow, miracle of miracles. Nursing mothers will have the right
to a reasonable break time and a place to express breast milk at work.
Pregnant and parenting women on Medicaid will get access to needed
services. That would be an improvement. Senior women will save
thousands of dollars as reform closes the Medicare prescription drug
coverage gap. And women will be able to comparison shop when choosing
health plans for their families. Family caregivers, who are typically
women, will benefit from new supports that help them care for their
loved ones while also taking care of themselves.
Madam Chair, as a son, as a father, and as an American, I strongly
support the ACA and its improvements to health care for everyone,
especially women. Dismantling the act, whether through immediate
repeal, lawsuits, or piece by piece, means losing those improvements,
and that is unacceptable.
{time} 1810
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to a distinguished
member of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Washington
State (Mr. Reichert).
Mr. REICHERT. Madam Chair, 2 years ago, the President's massive
health care plan came before us, and then-Speaker Pelosi said we had to
pass this bill to find out what was in it. Well, you know what? We're
finding out what's in this bill.
In the last 2 years, we've had 47 committee hearings in six different
committees. We've taken 25 floor votes to repeal, defund, or dismantle
harmful elements of this massive $1 trillion, 2,000-page government
takeover of our Nation's health care system. We're finding out what's
in this bill.
We've already repealed the 1099 requirement with bipartisan support.
We've already repealed the CLASS Act with bipartisan support. Now we're
awaiting the Supreme Court's decision on whether the individual mandate
is constitutional.
I think the public is now beginning to learn a little bit about this
bill themselves. I think they know there is a 3.8 percent tax on small
businesses, our job creators. There's another 2.3 percent tax on
medical devices--wheelchairs for our seniors, hearing aids for our
disabled folks. These are things that are in this bill. There's a 40
percent tax on your health care plans.
Now they keep telling us, too, that if you like your health care
plan, you can keep it. Well, President Obama, himself, said, you know,
there may have been some language snuck into this bill that runs
contrary to that premise. Who do we believe here? What do we believe?
Here we are again. One more thing to add to the list of what we're
finding out, IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This
unelected board makes decisions and gives recommendations to Congress
for cutting Medicare payments. So this panel of unelected bureaucrats
unilaterally decides what kind of care is now available and allowable
to our seniors, to our veterans, and to our Americans with
disabilities--not doctors, not nurses, not anybody who has medical or
scientific training. These are bureaucrats.
Just what we need, more bureaucrats.
[[Page H1476]]
If we don't vote to repeal this provision, a gang of 15 unelected
bureaucrats will have the ability to cause cuts to Medicare payments
without anyone else's input.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CAMP. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. REICHERT. So this rationing board will threaten seniors' access
to care in secret. There is absolutely no requirement for openness or
transparency or for those bureaucrats to hold public meetings or
consider input on its proposals. The IPAB, this board of bureaucrats,
is unaccountable; it's secretive and threatens patients' care.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
We're talking about a board whose operations trigger, according to
CBO, 10 years from now.
I just want to say to those who say it's unaccountable: Every one of
their recommendations will come before the Congress of the United
States, every single one. What's unaccountable are the statements that
are made on this floor that are not true.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member
of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady).
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Chairman, many Members of Congress didn't
have the time or the choice to read this new health care law before it
became law. After it was passed, I asked our economists of the Joint
Economic Committee--they spent 4 months going through every page and
provision of this new law--to show the American public just what this
new health care takeover looked like. They went through all 2,300 pages
of the bill, and this is what the new health care law in America looks
like--well, actually, not completely. We could only fit one-third of
all that new bureaucracy on one page.
Here are the physicians, over in that corner are the patients, and in
between are 159 new Federal agencies and bureaucrats in between you and
your doctor.
We can do better for the American public than this horrible health
care law, and we're doing that today.
Today, we're going to take on--this chart, the way it works,
everything in dark blue is a new expansion of government; everything in
orange, potential rationing boards; everything in green is $1 trillion
of new tax increases or slashing cuts to Medicare. All the light blue
provisions deal with expansion of government into the free market.
But today, we're going to act. We're not going to wait. We're going
to act to repeal one of the key rationing boards. This Independent
Payment Advisory Board, you've heard today, 15 unelected bureaucrats,
will make life-or-death decisions about treatment in the future.
My mom is one of those Medicare seniors who I have no doubt, if this
is not repealed, will someday see her treatments limited by these
unelected bureaucrats. Our Democratic friends say, We're not rationing,
because the government will not actually say ``no'' to a senior who
needs care. They just won't reimburse the doctor or the local hospital
or the local hospice care to take care of them.
I don't know what you call that, but I call that rationing.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CAMP. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. I thank the chairman. I will be very brief.
This board has unlimited power to slash even more than that, and
Congress is virtually powerless to stop it.
This is America. We don't allow these bureaucrats to make these life-
or-death decisions. Republicans in this House are going to repeal this
dangerous bureaucracy, and we are, when we get a chance, replacing it
with affordable health care for America.
Mr. LEVIN. No. What the Republicans would do would be to send the
decisions already there in large measure to insurance companies.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent).
Mr. DENT. Madam Chairman, the bill we're considering today, H.R. 5,
the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, or PATH, is about patient
access to care, plain and simple.
In the months leading up to the passage of the health care law and
since the law was enacted, Congress has spent countless hours talking
about the need to increase access to health care. The health care law
signed nearly 2 years ago was the wrong direction for our country and
for our citizens, and it will negatively impact access to care.
The two issues that we're going to address here today in this
legislation--repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB,
and enacting meaningful medical liability reforms--are key to ensuring
that all Americans have access to quality care.
Now, as to the first piece of this legislation, the IPAB, the
Independent Payment Advisory Board, let's be very clear: nothing about
these advisory rulings are advisory. Good luck to anybody; good luck if
you try to ignore the advice of the IPAB. It's going to be more like a
medical IRS than an advisory panel.
Let's be clear: the very purpose of this IPAB is to save money by
restricting access to health care for Medicare beneficiaries. It will
achieve these savings by ratcheting down payments to providers who are
already underpaid by Medicare. This will lead to fewer doctors who are
willing to see Medicare beneficiaries, and, undeniably, this will lead
to delays and denials of care.
This board, as has been said many times, is made up of 15 unelected
bureaucrats--and unaccountable ones at that--that will wield enormous
power, and there are no checks and balances in place to ensure that
authority is being used appropriately. This abdicates Congress'
responsibility, and it threatens care for our Nation's seniors.
Make no mistake that IPAB must be repealed. We don't need a medical
IRS.
The second part of this legislation is going to reform our medical
liability system. Across our country, our medical profession has
practiced defensive medicine out of fear of frivolous lawsuits. This
not only drives up health care costs, but it creates serious doctor
recruitment and retention problems, especially in the so-called ``high-
risk'' disciplines such as orthopedics, neurosurgery, emergency
medicine, and obstetrics.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CAMP. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.
Mr. DENT. This medical liability crisis has had serious implications
in my State of Pennsylvania. It's time we act on this issue.
I live in a State where we train a lot of doctors, but we can't
retain them and we can't recruit them. It's a very serious problem for
us.
It's time we pass this legislation. We'll say more about medical
liability tomorrow in the amendment process.
Support the legislation.
Mr. LEVIN. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member
of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Louisiana, Dr.
Boustany.
{time} 1820
Mr. BOUSTANY. I thank the chairman of the full committee for yielding
time to me.
I had a great career as a cardiac surgeon in treating thousands of
Medicare patients in my career. And my career ended prematurely because
of a disability.
But I learned something a long time ago from my father, who's a
family doctor, who went before me, who taught me about the art of
medicine. And the most important thing he taught me, despite all the
technology we have, is that trust in the doctor-patient relationship is
the most important thing, the most important foundation of good health
care, high quality health care.
Look at this chart. What's wrong with this?
Clearly, you could see all the bureaucratic entities. But where's the
doctor, and where's the patient?
The doctor is down here in the corner, and I think way off in the
other corner are the patients. So all this stuff in the middle is what
undermines the trust in the doctor-patient relationship.
Now, we had Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in
front of our committee recently, and
[[Page H1477]]
we were asking about this Independent Payment Advisory Board. We asked
the question about rationing, and what came out was, number one,
there's no definition of rationing in the statute, so the Department
will have to write rules. And she admitted in committee--very tacitly
but effectively admitted--that they're not going to be able to write
rules that can actually protect seniors from IPAB.
Even the left-leaning Kaiser Family Foundation admits, IPAB must
issue cuts to meet spending targets ``even if evidence of access or
quality concerns surfaced.'' AARP warns IPAB's Medicare cuts ``could
have a negative impact on access to care.''
Both of those are really understatements. According to Medicare's own
actuaries, Medicare physician payments could fall to less than half of
projected Medicaid rates under current law.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CAMP. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.
Mr. BOUSTANY. We won't control costs by cutting Medicare provider
reimbursements below the cost of providing care. And if left on the
books, IPAB will endanger the lives of seniors and delay access to
providers. It's very clear.
This undermines the doctor-patient relationship. It undermines trust
in our health care system. It undermines quality, and we will not
control costs with IPAB. That's why we must repeal it.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield myself 1 minute.
The present system doesn't have enough primary care. I know from my
own experience that there's a lack of family physicians and primary
care physicians. The Affordable Care Act strengthens that program, will
strengthen the relationship between the physician and the patient. And
for anybody to come here and scare patients and seniors into thinking
that there is some kind of a wall that will be replaced is really not
true.
Mr. BOUSTANY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. LEVIN. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. BOUSTANY. We have a severe shortage of physicians in this country
today, and it's getting worse, worse by the month and by the year. And
as a physician who stays close to the physician community around this
country, I am hearing all kinds of stories about physicians nearing
retirement moving up that retirement date. We're seeing fewer people
going to medical school. All of this is creating a major disruption in
our health care system.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield myself an additional 1 minute.
Look, I respect that. But the primary fact, the basic fact is that
the Affordable Care Act addresses this issue more effectively than has
been addressed before. There is more money for primary care physicians,
for family physicians. That's what we need. That's what we need.
And to come here and raise the specter that this bill is going to
diminish it, when its major purpose, among others, is to increase the
availability, to have a linkage between the patient and the specialty
care--
Mr. BOUSTANY. Will the gentleman yield for one more point?
Mr. LEVIN. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. BOUSTANY. We have a severe shortage in cardiothoracic surgeons,
in neurosurgeons, other key specialists that are very essential for the
care of Medicare patients, and it's getting worse. We need both primary
care and specialty physicians to deal with this patient population.
It's getting worse.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has again expired.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield myself an additional 30 seconds.
Look, we need to address it, but destroying Medicare is not the way
to address it. That's what you do. You destroy it. You destroy it when
you say you're saving it.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CAMP. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Pence).
(Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. PENCE. I thank the chairman for yielding.
I rise today in support of the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act.
This bill will take an important step forward in dismantling the
government takeover of health care that was passed by this body some 2
years ago.
The PATH Act essentially would repeal the Independent Payment
Advisory Board included in ObamaCare, and I strongly support it.
Now, quite frankly, the IPAB that is the acronym that's been used
often on the floor in this debate is probably something that most
Americans are unfamiliar with. But they deserve to know that buried in
section 3403 of ObamaCare, there's a powerful board of unelected
bureaucrats, this so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board, whose
sole job will be to save money by restricting access to health care for
Medicare beneficiaries. That's the purpose of IPAB.
IPAB is required to achieve specific savings in years where Medicare
spending is deemed to be too high. It will lead, inexorably, to
rationing. It will take medical decisions out of the hands of doctors
and patients, and it will reduce patient choice, unambiguously.
Furthermore, ObamaCare doesn't even require that IPAB do all of this
in the public domain. There's no requirement that IPAB hold public
meetings or hearings, consider public input on its proposal, or make
its deliberations open to the public.
Unaccountable Washington bureaucrats meeting behind closed doors to
make unilateral decisions that should be made by patients and doctors
is unacceptable, and this IPAB must be repealed.
It was 2 years ago that we passed this government takeover of health
care into law. It's important to note that the first act of this
Congress in January 2011 was a full repeal of ObamaCare.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CAMP. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman.
You'll never convince me that the Federal Government, under the
Constitution, has the authority to order the American people to buy
health insurance whether they want it or need it, or not. My hope is
that in the days ahead, the Supreme Court will come to that conclusion.
I believe we must not rest, we must not relent until we repeal
ObamaCare, lock, stock and barrel. But, for now, let's take the path
that is before us. Let's pass the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act,
and let's repeal this onerous Independent Payment Advisory Board once
and for all.
Mr. LEVIN. I yield myself the balance of my time.
Look, the Supreme Court will be hearing the case about the individual
mandate next week, and I don't think we want to argue this now. We
don't have any judges here.
But let me say, on the individual mandate, it really is ironical that
the more conservative, apparently, you are, the more you dislike the
individual mandate, when the individual mandate was the central point
within the health care reform proposal of conservatives in this country
several decades ago. It was their central point in the eighties and in
the nineties. And now they've reversed course and claim, I guess, what
they proposed in the seventies and eighties was constitutional then is
unconstitutional today. Talk about a flip-flop. That is, I think, maybe
an unconstitutional flip-flop, but the Court will decide that.
{time} 1830
Let me just say a word about cost containment and the importance of
our addressing that and the importance of our reforming the present
system, how we reimburse the fee-for-service system. I don't think it's
been noticed that, in addition to IPAB, ACA has a number of provisions
that will go into effect long before IPAB could become operational.
Those systems are beginning to work.
For conservatives who talk about the importance of cost containment,
they want to repeal an act that has within it not only the seeds of
cost containment, but the instrumentalities of it. In fact, they're
beginning to work well enough. That's why CBO says that it's going to
be 10 years before IPAB is triggered.
So, those who come here who claim to be concerned about cost
containment essentially are undermining their own position.
[[Page H1478]]
Well, this is act one of the Republican three-act play.
The second is to eliminate health care reform altogether, and the
third is to take away Medicare.
I want to close reporting the views of AARP in terms of the Ryan
budget proposal. It says:
It lacks balance, jeopardizes the health and economic
security of older Americans. A number of proposals in this
budget put at risk millions of individuals by prioritizing
budget caps and cuts over the impact on people.
Those who talk about the cap that would essentially be within the
structure of IPAB's operation, that proposed cut is less than in the
Ryan budget, which would be more severe, and essentially the
implementation would be by insurance companies who are nameless, who
are unaccountable.
So let me continue with another quote from the AARP:
By creating the premium support system for Medicare
beneficiaries, the proposal is likely to simply increase
costs for beneficiaries while removing Medicare's promise of
secure health coverage--a guarantee the future seniors have
contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.
The premium support method described in the proposal,
unlike private plan options that currently exist in Medicare,
would likely `price out' traditional Medicare as a viable
option, thus rendering the choice of traditional Medicare as
a false promise.
So this is what I think we should do in terms of this three-act play
of the House Republicans. That is to start by rejecting act one, this
repeal of IPAB.
This may be a vote, but it's not going to be an act.
I finish with this. In a sense, you are acting because this isn't
going to become law. You have not come up in all of these months with a
comprehensive alternative to the Affordable Care Act. There's not been
a comprehensive bill put forth. We haven't voted on a comprehensive
bill in these days on the Ways and Means Committee. Instead, there has
a piece-by-piece effort to dismantle what was health care reform to
address a serious situation, including over 50 million people who go to
sleep every night without health care coverage in the United States of
America.
We should be ashamed of that. We should be ashamed. A couple years
ago, we acted to lift that shame off of the shoulders of all of us in
the United States of America.
I urge we vote ``no'' on this bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CAMP. Madam Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Nearly 70 percent of seniors are worried that IPAB will limit their
Medicare choices and the coverage that's available to them under
Medicare. I think this is the most troubling part of the health care
law that the Democrats rammed through the Congress, and that is because
this secret rationing board is given enormous power with no
accountability.
The 15 unelected board members of IPAB are free to cut reimbursement
rates for certain procedures or for services that they deem
unnecessary. They can cut those rates so low that physicians will no
longer be able to offer those services. That's pretty clearly the
ability to ration.
We have had countless physician groups warn us about the IPAB.
They're warning us that these cuts will force them to stop seeing
Medicare patients, and the real problem is, because TRICARE
reimbursement rates are tied directly to Medicare, that will have
health care for our military personnel negatively impacted by the IPAB
as well.
The Democrats gave IPAB blanket authority to operate in secret. There
is no requirement that their deliberations, their reasonings for their
conclusions must be made public. Also, the health care bill states
directly that IPAB, and I'm quoting here, ``may accept, use, and
dispose of gifts or donations of services or property.'' That's not a
very subtle invitation for lobbyists and others with interests in
issues before the Congress to impact these unelected and unaccountable
IPAB members with cash, with gifts, with other items.
So not only do they have enormous power that if the Congress can't
override automatically becomes law. But they have the ability to do it
in secret, and the legislation states directly that they can accept
gifts and donations.
So this is a troubling piece of ObamaCare that we need to repeal, and
I urge my members to vote for repeal of this.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Chairwoman, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Madam Chairwoman, America's medical liability system is broken and in
desperate need of reform.
{time} 1840
Frivolous lawsuits drive physicians out of the practice of medicine.
Limitless liability discourages others from high-risk medical
specialties and substantially increases the cost of health care.
The solutions to this crisis are both well known and time tested, but
the President's recent health care legislation did nothing to address
the problems in our medical liability system.
We cannot wait any longer to fix the problem. We should pass this
bipartisan medical liability reform legislation to cut health care
costs, spur medical investment, create jobs, and increase access to
health care for all Americans.
H.R. 5, the HEALTH Act, is modeled after California's decades-old and
highly successful health care litigation reform. According to the
National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the rate of increase
in medical professional liability premiums in California since 1976 has
been nearly three times lower than the rate of increase experienced in
other States.
By incorporating California's time-tested reforms at the Federal
level, the HEALTH Act saves taxpayers billions of dollars, encourages
health care providers to maintain their practices, and reduces health
care costs for patients. It especially helps traditionally underserved
rural and inner-city communities and women who seek obstetrics care.
The reforms in H.R. 5 include a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages
and limits on the contingency fees lawyers can charge, and it allows
courts to require periodic payments for future damages in order to
ensure that injured patients receive all of the damages they are
awarded without bankrupting the defendant.
The HEALTH Act also includes provisions that create a fair share rule
by which damages are allocated fairly in direct proportion to fault,
and it provides reasonable guidelines on the award of punitive damages.
The HEALTH Act allows for the payment of 100 percent of plaintiffs'
economic losses. These unlimited economic damages include all their
medical costs, their lost wages, their future lost wages,
rehabilitation costs, and any other economic out-of-pocket loss
suffered as a result of a health care injury.
The HEALTH Act also does not preempt any State law that otherwise
caps damages.
This bill is a commonsense and constitutional approach to reducing
the cost of health care.
Whereas, the HEALTH Act allows doctors to freely practice nationwide,
the ObamaCare individual mandate dictates that all people buy a
particular product, whether they want it or not.
Unlike ObamaCare, the HEALTH Act saves the American taxpayers money.
The Congressional Budget Office recently determined that the
President's health care law will cost almost double its original $900
billion price tag. Another CBO report estimates that premiums for
medical malpractice insurance ultimately would be an average of 25
percent to 30 percent below what they would be under current law. These
are just a few reasons why organizations like Americans for Tax Reform
support this legislation.
The HEALTH Act also reduces the cost of health care as it decreases
the waste in our system caused by defensive medicine. This practice
occurs when doctors are forced by the threat of lawsuits to conduct
tests and prescribe drugs that are not medically required.
According to a Harvard University study, 40 percent of medical
malpractice lawsuits filed in the United States lack evidence of
medical error or any actual patient injury. That's 40 percent. Many of
these suits amount to legalized extortion of doctors and hospitals. But
because there are so many lawsuits, doctors are forced to conduct
medical tests simply to avoid a lawsuit
[[Page H1479]]
in which lawyers claim not everything possible was done for the
patient. This wasteful defensive medicine adds to our health care costs
without improving the quality of patient care.
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama said:
I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs,
including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical
malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.
Let's help the President keep his word and put this legislation on
his desk.
Madam Chairwoman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Ladies and gentlemen of the House, when we passed the landmark
Affordable Care Act, some derisively termed it ``ObamaCare.'' I believe
that some day this bill will be famous because it is named after the
President.
We were proud to have taken up an important step in realizing a goal
that we've been striving for for quite a long time. But today, we're
confronted with a leader in the House, himself a medical doctor, who is
urging that we take a step backward and roll back our progress.
The measure before us will repeal the Independent Payment Advisory
Board, which would save us millions of dollars and pay for itself by
pushing through malpractice legislation that undermines State
sovereignty and enriches corporations that surely don't need it.
Congress established the advisory board to slow Medicare's growth
costs. The Independent Payment Advisory Board does not undermine our
role in Medicare policy nor does it cut access to care. Its repeal,
however, removes critical oversight and efficiency and paves the way
for the majority's plans to replace guaranteed health care for seniors
with corporate voucher systems.
How many of us have constituencies that you could go back home and
tell your constituents that you're going to replace this health care
bill that is praised from one end of the country to the other, that has
taken decades to enact, that we're now going to use vouchers for health
care?
When we passed President Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act, we
were proud to have taken an important step in realizing that ideal.
But today, the Majority takes a step backwards. They seek to roll
back our progress. H.R. 5, the so-called ``Help Efficient, Accessible,
Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act,'' will repeal the Independent Payment
Advisory Board, IPAB, which saves us millions, and pay for it by
pushing through malpractice legislation that undermines State
sovereignty and enriches insurance companies.
Congress established the IPAB to slow Medicare's growth costs. The
IPAB does not undermine our role in Medicare policy or cut access to
care. Its repeal, however, removes critical oversight and efficiency,
and paves the way for the Majority's plans to replace guaranteed
healthcare for seniors with corporate voucher systems.
Rolling back these cost-cutting measures will cost the Federal
Government money, and so to pay for this costly repeal, the Majority
has offered up the same tired old medical malpractice proposals they
have been pushing for the last two decades. In fact, this is the
fourteenth time that the full House will have considered this measure
since 1995. It wasn't a good idea 20 years ago, and it isn't a good
idea today.
Rather than helping doctors and victims, the bill before us
represents a windfall for the health care business. It pads the pockets
of insurance companies, HMOs, and the manufacturers and distributors of
defective medical products and pharmaceuticals. And it does so at the
expense of innocent victims--particularly women, children, the elderly,
and the poor.
The malpractice liability provisions before us today would supersede
the law in all 50 states to cap non-economic damages, cap and limit
punitive damages, limit access to the courts for poorer victims of
medical malpractice, shorten the statute of limitations for claims,
eliminate protections for children, and eliminate joint and several
liability.
We need to cut the charades and get to the heart of the problem.
The malpractice insurance industry is plagued by collusion, price
fixing, and other anticompetitive activities. Yet this bill does
nothing to respond to this problem.
It is also clear that a legislative solution largely focused on
limiting victims rights available under our state tort system will do
little other than increase the incidence of medical malpractice--
already the sixth leading cause of preventable death in our nation.
Under the proposed caps on damages, Congress would be saying to the
American people that we don't care if you lose your ability to bear
children, we don't care if you are forced to bear excruciating pain for
the remainder of your life, we don't care if you are permanently
disfigured or crippled.
The proposed new statute of limitations takes absolutely no account
of the fact that many injuries caused by malpractice or faulty drugs
take years or even decades to manifest themselves and trace the root
cause.
The bill would allow insurance companies teetering on the verge of
bankruptcy to delay and then completely avoid future financial
obligations. And they would have no obligation to pay interest on
amounts they owe their victims.
And guess who else gets a sweetheart deal under this legislation?
Drug companies--most of which are foreign. This bill makes drug and
device manufacturers immune from punitive damages, so long as the FDA
has approved their products or their products are generally considered
``safe,'' no matter how egregious their behavior.
The bottom line is that this legislation doesn't prevent terrible
things from happening in hospitals. The bill's takeover of state courts
won't help judges throw out frivolous lawsuits, and a ceiling of a
quarter of a million dollars won't stop bad actors from looking for a
payout.
Instead, this legislation lifts legal and financial risk from
hospitals, drug manufacturers, and insurance companies, and drops that
burden onto real people, the victims of medical malpractice.
This bill helps the powerful at the expense of the injured, the
elderly, and the very young. It raises serious federalism concerns and
overturns the law in all 50 states. And it huts real people with real
injuries, blocks them from the courts and limits their rights to legal
redress, all in the name of a dangerous, unnecessary, and unfair theory
about malpractice liability.
I urge my colleagues to reject this anti-patient, anti-victim
legislation.
Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Chairwoman, I yield such time as he may
consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lungren), who is the
chairman of the House Administration Committee and a senior member of
the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
The idea that 15 unelected individuals on the Independent Payment
Advisory Board have been empowered by the so-called Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act to ration health care for seniors--and that's
for all seniors--is as Orwellian as these titles crafted by the
previous Congress to divert attention from what's really being done
here.
Delegating such authority to a government board to make such
decisions with such a dramatic impact on the health care alternatives
available to Medicare recipients raises the most serious ethical
concerns about respect for the dignity of our seniors. This is the
unfortunate consequence of a world view which favors the notion of
bureaucratic expertise and efficiency as a solution to the challenges
facing our health care system today. The purpose of providing quality
health care to our Nation's seniors is simply incompatible with the
idea that the delivery of health care services can be achieved through
some sort of algorithm contrived by a panel of experts.
Rather than empowering seniors to play a more active role in their
own health care decisions, the IPAB moves in the opposite direction by
empowering an unaccountable government panel to make these decisions.
In this regard, the inclusion of legislative language to repeal IPAB
could not be better placed than with a medical liability reform bill,
for IPAB is itself, per se, malpractice.
{time} 1850
Now, H.R. 5 contains many important reforms concerning our health
care litigation system. These health care reforms are modeled after my
own State of California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act,
better known as MICRA. This important initiative was signed into law
over three decades ago by then- and now, again, California Governor
Jerry Brown.
I practiced under this law for several years. I practiced under the
law that preceded MICRA. I did a good deal of medical malpractice
defense in the courtroom. I appeared before juries, before judges. I
settled cases. I had the
[[Page H1480]]
opportunity to defend doctors and hospitals. About 90 percent of the
cases I did were on the defense side, about 10 percent on the
plaintiff's side. I believe I had the first successful medical
malpractice suit against an HMO in the State of California. I had an
opportunity to view the system close up.
And the fact of the matter is, without the MICRA reforms, the
California medical system, the health care system would have collapsed.
We had doctors leaving the State of California--particularly in
specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery,
anesthesiology--moving to other States because the premiums that were
required to be paid by our doctors had become so exorbitant that they
either had to leave the State or no longer be able to practice
medicine.
Information received by our Judiciary Committee from the National
Association of State Insurance Commissioners indicates that since 1976,
when it was adopted, California's medical professional liability
premiums have risen at less than half the pace of the rest of the
country. While I would caution that MICRA must not be perceived as a
silver bullet, it was, nonetheless, an important step forward taken by
our State and a sound model for reform. This is, once again, evidence
that as laboratories of democracy, our States more often than not serve
as incubators of reform.
At the same time, I do believe that it is important to recognize that
the American legal system and our civil justice system, in particular,
contains vagaries unique to each of the States which operate within the
context of a system of federalism. In this regard, we need to be
cautious on the Federal level in making assumptions about the impact of
our actions. Even in California, itself, the effort to adopt a Federal
medical liability reform statute has raised some questions about
possible unintended consequences.
Even though one aspect of the impetus behind H.R. 5 is to bring
relief to medical practitioners from the trap of defensive medicine, as
suggested by the chairman of our committee--and I do believe that is
true--physicians are, unfortunately, expressing some concerns over some
of the provisions contained in H.R. 5.
Specifically, the California Medical Association, while they support
getting rid of the board as we previously discussed, have expressed
some opposition to the fair-share rule contained in section 4(d) of the
HEALTH Act. They have expressed that the fair-share rule in H.R. 5 will
preempt California's law and put full recovery by injured patients at
risk. They inform us, ``As written, the fair share rule will
dramatically increase the potential for physicians to face enforcement
proceedings against their personal assets. This would force physicians
to purchase increased medical professional liability insurance
coverage, which will significantly increase liability premiums in
California for physicians.''
Secondly, the California Medical Association has expressed ``serious
concerns with granting complete immunity from punitive damages to
medical produce and device manufacturers, distributors, and
suppliers.'' They state, ``We believe this will force plaintiffs to
look only to physicians and other providers to seek relief and will
significantly increase physician exposure and liability costs.''
So I'm somewhat on the horns of a dilemma here. I do believe that we
absolutely, as the physicians of the California Medical Association
believe, ought to rid ourselves of the Independent Payment Advisory
Board for fear that its implementation will, in fact, interfere with
the doctor-patient relationship, interfere with the availability of
medical care, interfere with the availability of physicians to seniors
and others. But they have expressed some concerns that we have to give
other States the benefit of MICRA. And I understand some of their
concerns. I think we may be very well able to address that in further
language.
Although it is my intention to vote for passage of H.R. 5, my hope is
that before it would return to us from the Senate, we would
specifically address the concerns raised by the physicians from my
State. The necessary repeal of IPAB is an important reform. Some of
these others contained in the further section of the health care act
warrant support. But I do believe we need to have some changes, and I
would look forward to those changes in a conference report or any bill
which is returned to the body by the Senate.
I would like to say this, that for someone who practiced law for a
number of years in the area of medical malpractice, with doctors and
hospitals, and saw what a failure to limit noneconomic damages was
doing to the availability of health care--not just the cost of health
care, but the availability of health care in my home State--I do
believe MICRA is a model that ought to be replicated by other States in
the Union.
I do believe that the facts are in. Over 30 years, we've been able to
see that it has improved access to health care, improved the number of
physicians, particularly in difficult specialties, and it has brought
down the overall cost of premiums and, therefore, the cost of medical
care in my State.
The idea that somehow medical malpractice premiums have no effect
either on the cost of care or the accessibility of care flies in the
face of the experience of 30 years in my home State of California.
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Chair, I am pleased now to yield 1 minute to the
former Speaker of the House of Representatives, our leader, the
gentlewoman from California, Nancy Pelosi.
Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I appreciate his
leadership for helping us honor what our Founders put forth in our
founding documents, which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. And that is exactly what the Affordable Care Act helps to
guarantee: a healthier life, the liberty to pursue happiness free of
the constraints that the lack of health care might provide to a family.
If you want to be a photographer, a writer, an artist, a musician, you
can do so. If you want to start a business, if you want to change jobs,
under the Affordable Care Act, you have that liberty to pursue your
happiness.
So that is why I am so pleased that this week we can celebrate the 2-
year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act; and I want to mention some
of the provisions that are in it but not before mentioning that the
legislation on the floor today is a feeble attempt to unravel
legislation that makes a big difference in the lives of America's
families.
You be the judge: if you are a family with a child with asthma,
diabetes, is bipolar, has a preexisting medical condition, up until
this bill, your child could be discriminated against for life of ever
receiving affordable health insurance and, therefore, care. The full
thrust of the law does not take place until 2014; but already, for
months now, no child in America can be denied health coverage because
of a preexisting condition, and soon all Americans will have that same
protection.
For the first time in American history, millions of American women
and seniors have access to free preventive health services, services
that prevent, that are better early intervention to detect a possible
illness in a person.
{time} 1900
Eighty-six million Americans have already received key preventive
health benefits under the law, and more than 5 million seniors have
saved over $3.2 billion in prescription drug expenses. Already, $3.2
billion in prescription drug benefits because of provisions of the law
that are already in effect.
So if you're a senior and you're caught in the doughnut hole, or you
would have been, you are already benefiting from this law. And that's
what the Republicans are trying to take away from you, from your
family, from your life, from your liberty, from your pursuit of
happiness.
The last point about seniors and prescription drugs is particularly
important because it fits in with our consistent commitment from day
one as authors of Medicare in the sixties, fits with our consistent
commitment to always strengthen Medicare for American seniors, never
weaken it. Indeed, as I mentioned, Democrats created Medicare,
sustained Medicare, and Democrats will always protect Medicare even
from language that is so misleading as to make one wonder.
Republicans, on the other hand, have voted to end Medicare. End the
Medicare guarantee. They have said that their goal for Medicare is for
it to wither on the vine. And tonight's legislation is a part of the
withering on the
[[Page H1481]]
vine. It's important for you to know that if you care about Medicare,
if you depend on Medicare, this is the wither-on-the-vine scenario.
In fact, just yesterday, the Republicans released their budget, which
would end the Medicare guarantee and shift cost to seniors. End the
guarantee. What does that mean? Shift cost to seniors--perhaps up to
$6,400 for most seniors a year--and, again, let Medicare wither on the
vine. That's why today's legislation is such a cynical political ploy.
And I know that American seniors will not be fooled by it.
Today brought legislation to repeal what is known as IPAB, the
Independent Payment Advisory Board. Independent. Independent of
political influence over decisions that are made. This piece of the
legislation was a bend-the-curve to reduce the cost of health care in
America.
Republicans are desperate to distract seniors from their real record
on Medicare, and that's what they're trying to do today. I say that
without any fear of contradiction and without any hesitation because
nothing less is at stake than the well-being of our seniors, their
personal health, and their economic health. And that means their
security.
Further, in this bill Republicans have recycled their old medical
malpractice liability legislation that undermines states' rights and
hurts the rights of injured patients to obtain just compensation.
Because of the impact on American States of what they're trying to do
in this bill, the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures
has strongly opposed this bill. That bipartisan group says that after a
careful review it had reached ``the resounding bipartisan conclusion
that Federal medical malpractice legislation is unnecessary.''
Again, Madam Speaker, this week we celebrate the 2-year anniversary
of the Affordable Care Act for what it embodies. It's about innovation.
It's about not just health care in America but a healthier America.
It's about prevention and innovation. It's about customized,
personalized care. It's about electronic medical records. It's about
lowering costs, expanding access, and improving quality.
So much misleading information is put out there about it that it's
important to keep repeating the difference, the transformative nature
of the legislation. In fact, it has already begun to transform the
lives of America's children by saying no longer will they be denied
coverage because they have a preexisting medical condition. And soon we
can fully say that no longer being a woman is a preexisting medical
condition, where women are discriminated against to the tune of a
billion dollars a year, and cost of premiums, not to mention exclusion
from obtaining coverage.
And so I proudly celebrate the 2-year anniversary, and I emphatically
oppose the legislation on the floor. If you want to unravel Medicare,
vote ``aye.'' If you want to support Medicare, if you think health care
is a right for the many, not just a privilege for the few, vote ``no.''
Mr. SMITH of Texas. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, most Americans still oppose ObamaCare yet support
medical liability reform of the kind that we are considering tonight. A
recent survey found that 83 percent of Americans believe that reforming
the legal system needs to be part of any health care reform plan.
As the Associated Press recently reported, most Americans want
Congress to deal with malpractice lawsuits driving up the cost of
medical care, says an Associated Press poll. Yet Democrats are
reluctant to press forward on an issue that would upset a valuable
political constituency--trial lawyers--even if President Barack Obama
says he's open to changes.
The AP poll found that support for limits on malpractice lawsuits
cuts across political lines, with 58 percent of independents and 61
percent of Republicans in favor. Democrats were more divided. But
still, 47 percent said they favor making it harder to sue while 37
percent are opposed. The survey was conducted by Stanford University
with the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In the poll, 59
percent said they thought at least half the tests doctors order are
unnecessary--ordered only because of fear of lawsuits.
In a poll done by the Health Coalition on Liability and Access in
October, 2009, 69 percent of Americans said they wanted medical
liability reform included in health care reform legislation. Seventy-
two percent said their access to quality medical care is at risk
because lawsuit abuse forces good doctors out of the practice of
medicine.
Mr. Chairman, let's support a bill that is so strongly endorsed by
the American people.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield such time as he may
consume to a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler,
who has worked on this subject matter for quite a long time.
Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in
opposition to this deeply flawed and deceptively named legislation.
Contrary to the bill's title, this bill will not promote access to
better health care nor will it make health care more affordable. If the
wishes of many of the proponents of this legislation come true and the
Affordable Care Act is repealed and Medicare and Medicaid as we know
them are curtailed or eliminated, then decent, affordable health care
will remain out of reach for millions of Americans, including many who
now have access to health care services.
I urge all Members to keep one fact in mind as we debate the medical
malpractice aspects of this bill. These provisions would apply only to
people who had meritorious claims of malpractice against them. You
don't have to limit people's recoveries or attorneys fees for people
without meritorious claims. So whatever we're doing here today will be
done only to those who have been injured, whose injuries have been
inflicted by someone else's wrongdoing, and who need and should be
entitled to compensation.
The argument we hear, which is not a new one, is that if we allow the
players in the health care industry, including Big Pharma, the
manufacturers of defective medical devices, and even big insurance
companies and HMOs that routinely pay for health care services, to
escape the consequences of the harm they inflict, then somehow we'll
all be better off.
{time} 1910
This is not true, has never been true, and, despite the extravagant
claims of the proponents of this bill and the industries lobbying for
it, that will not be true if this multibillion dollar gift to bad
actors in the health care industry were to become law.
Just how pricey a gift to industry are we talking about here?
According to the Congressional Budget Office, $45.5 billion over the
next decade. Now, anyone who believes that those savings will be passed
along directly to consumers, health care providers, and victims of
medical malpractice is living in a dream world. Some of us will
remember the debates we had in this House for the 8 years preceding
enactment of the 2005 Bankruptcy Code rewrite. We will no doubt
remember the argument that abuse of the bankruptcy system was a hidden
tax of $400 a year for every American and that tightening the rules
would be of interest to all consumers. Well, we passed that huge
giveaway to the big banks. Consumers have not seen a nickel of that
$400. The banks pocketed all the money. If you think that this bill
will lower costs for consumers, that the big insurance companies will
not simply pocket the money, there's a famous bridge in my district
that I might be willing to sell to you.
So keep in mind just who will be bearing the burden of this
legislation: people who are subject to limitations on damages and on
their ability to obtain competent counsel--something not imposed on
insurance companies, drug companies, or HMOs. That may be good for the
insurance companies, for the manufacturers of defective drugs and
medical devices and all the other wrongdoers walking these Halls with
open checkbooks, but it will come at the expense of their victims.
Nowhere does CBO, or their sponsors, explain why their belief that
insurance companies, Big Pharma and medical device manufacturers will
pass any savings along, nor do they account for the cost of the care
needed by people who have been injured and who will be unable to
receive adequate compensation.
[[Page H1482]]
This bill is not limited to suits against individual health care
service providers, doctors and other licensed health care
professionals. It would provide protection against malpractice claims
for large corporations, insurance companies, health maintenance
organizations, and pharmaceutical giants when they deal in defective
products or when someone else's health is destroyed because an
insurance company refused to pay for necessary care.
Mr. Chairman, we heard the gentleman from California refer to the
California legislation that is the model for this legislation passed in
1976, 36 years ago. That legislation enacted a limit and said for
noneconomic damages you can only get a recovery of $250,000 because you
lost a leg when they removed the wrong leg. They felt in 1976 that
$250,000 was an appropriate amount to limit it to. In today's dollars,
that's $38,000.
But there's no inflator in that legislation, and there's no inflator
in this legislation. That $250,000 in 1976 today is $1.4 million. So if
we were modeling this on that, we should say the limit is $1.4 million,
but we're not doing that. We're saying 250, and we're not putting an
inflation adjustment in here, so it will be $250,000 this year, and 5
years from now it will be the equivalent of $100,000, and 10 years from
now $35,000 and eventually zero.
I submit that it is very wrong. It may be that if malpractice causes
a woman to lose her fertility, causes her to lose the ability to bear
children, the medical costs to her may be minor, the lost wages, the
economic damages may be minor. But the inability to bear a child should
be limited to $250,000 and eventually to almost nothing because there's
no inflation in this? If someone is put in a wheelchair for life, the
pain and suffering is worth almost nothing? That's what is wrong with
this legislation, and that's what's immoral about this legislation.
That's why we ought to vote against this legislation.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from Illinois (Mr. Johnson).
Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois. Mr. Chairman and Members of the House, first
of all, let me thank the chairman for his willingness to allow me to
speak on an issue on which we do not agree. I appreciate the courtesy;
I appreciate the lively debate that has preceded me in, I think,
probably a far more articulate way than I'm going to be able to
articulate. But let me just, Mr. Chairman and Members of the House,
address this in a bigger sense and then maybe in a specific sense from
the standpoint of a Republican Member of the United States Congress.
To begin with, I believe that this addition is largely unrelated and
almost entirely disconnected from the underlying bill. I believe it
demonstrates some concern--or I believe it reveals some lack of
concern--for sensitivity, and I think in a lot of ways reveals the
duplicitousness that I think is inherent in a discussion of this issue.
I think it is statist and antithetical to our beliefs, at least my
beliefs and I think most of the Members' on this side of the aisle,
with respect to what America is all about.
I look at this from the standpoint of a Republican Member in a
Republican Party who has been a forerunner and who has dealt with the
issue of states' rights and, quite frankly, has attacked this health
care bill--and the Attorneys General--on a states' rights and
interstate commerce basis. It is a classic example, Mr. Chairman and
Members of the House, of what has historically been an area for states'
rights. Whether it's the criminal justice or domestic law or civil
justice, our Founding Fathers set in place a Federal level and a State
level of government, and this strikes at the core of states' rights.
In addition to that, Mr. Chairman and Members of the House,
separation of powers. We have been critical--and I think legitimately--
from this side of the aisle with respect to HHS waivers that have been
granted. We've been critical of the EPA and the U.S. DOT and so forth
for their administration and their promulgation of rules without
legislative authorization. And yet this entirely desecrates, in some
ways, our whole judicial function, our whole judicial function
regarding liability and damages. It is an intrusion into the judicial
arena, which is something that is sacrosanct, and I think that's
essential to our viewpoint of what the Constitution is all about.
It also strikes at the core of our free market system. I have been
involved from a number of standpoints in the law practice; and I see a
system that, in an overwhelming number of cases, works to effect
justice. Two attorneys or more, witnesses, jurors, a judge, and the
common law of 200 or 250 years almost inevitably results in just
results. And now we have a situation, despite that commitment to free
market that we have, where we're now proposing that the Federal
Government dictate an imprimatur to override this whole system that's
already in place and I think infringes on our constitutional right to a
trial by jury.
It also strikes, I think, Mr. Chairman and Members of the House, what
we Republicans say we believe in in terms of individual worth. One of
our attacks, quite frankly, on the passage of this bill, which I
largely subscribe to the attacks, is one that deals with the deep
personalization of the individual inherent in President Obama's health
care approach. This bill is a collectivist attack on personal realities
and is a disregard for age, circumstances, State or community of
residence; and I think that addresses in a very serious way the concept
that we have constitutional worth of the individual.
In conclusion, this bill has essentially nothing to do with revenue
production. We all know that. It obfuscates the underlying purpose of
the bill, which is, quite frankly, to dismantle the inherent
bureaucracy in the health care bill, which I largely subscribe to. It
injects politics into a legitimate debate on a substantive public
policy and prevents Republican and Democrat Members from an up-or-down
vote and strikes, I think, at our fundamental beliefs of states'
rights, of individualism and on constitutional premise.
In summary, I believe that a ``no'' vote is a vote to preserve
individual dignity. Our ``no'' vote is one to maintain constitutional
values, and it is to safeguard states' rights and the separation of
powers. I know this is well intended, but this is not the vehicle to do
it in. The vehicle is Austin, Texas, or Albany, New York, or
Springfield, Illinois. I have some serious concerns about State
legislation that would also interfere with separation of powers, but
this is not the arena to do it in; it is not the bill to do it in; and
I think, quite frankly, it is one that, unfortunately for me, strikes
at the core of why I'm here. I'm not here to dismantle our common law
system; I'm not here to dismantle the free market system; and I'm not
here to dismantle states' rights. I'm here to stand up for what I think
the American people sent us here for.
I don't think the health care bill was well considered. I think it
should be substantially addressed in terms of this and other
legislation. But this bill doesn't do it, ladies and gentlemen; and I,
with all due respect, ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
join with me in a ``no'' vote on what I think may be a well intended,
but certainly misdirected, effort. And I join with my colleagues over
here and some over here in urging a ``no'' vote.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I ask if the distinguished gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Johnson) would like additional time. If he requires any,
I would be glad to arrange to yield him further time.
If you require more time, I would be delighted to yield it to you.
Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois. You are very kind to do that, Mr. Conyers.
{time} 1920
I think I probably pretty well addressed it. I think between myself
and my inarticulate comments and your opposition and some opposition
over here, I think the debate has been very good and good for the
process. And this is one I'm with you on, sir.
Mr. CONYERS. I thank you, Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased now to yield 4 minutes to the Judiciary
Committee member from Florida (Mr. Deutch), who has worked very
carefully with us on this subject matter.
Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Chairman, it's no surprise that I am disappointed
with the content of this bill before us today. I join with my
colleagues who have expressed their disappointment, but I'm also
disappointed with the process behind it.
[[Page H1483]]
Yesterday, for a totally bogus reason, the Rules Committee declared
an amendment I offered out of order. They claimed it would add to the
cost of the bill despite having no numbers. The amendment did not
create some new regulation. It did not create new judicial proceedings.
It did not set aside money for a new program.
Let me tell you what it did do, Mr. Chairman. It would have made a
terrible bill slightly better. It's simple.
My amendment ensured that doctors who intentionally--not
accidentally, but intentionally--harm their patients are not exempt
from medical malpractice liability. If this Congress wishes to tell a
child made blind by the negligence of his doctor that those in this
Chamber know better than a jury, if my colleagues wish to pretend that
the Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution, guaranteeing a
trial by jury, was somehow omitted from the Bill of Rights, I disagree,
but so be it. The very least we can do is ensure that if a doctor
intentionally abuses his patients that he will not evade justice.
Surely, the sponsors of this bill did not intend to extend liability
caps to a pediatrician who sexually abused a child or a dentist who
raped his patients under sedation. I'm disgusted to say that those are
both real examples of the kind of abhorrent behavior H.R. 5 may
mistakenly immunize without clarification.
Is it too much to ask that we simply think this through? Can someone
explain to me how this amendment costs a penny? Better yet, will
someone explain to the 103 children who were molested by a Delaware
pediatrician that Washington wants to make it easier for sexual
predators to evade justice?
My friends, differentiating between medical errors and intentional
harm is not some wild and crazy new idea being pedaled by the left.
Many States--blue States, red States, and in between--limit malpractice
awards but make distinctions for intentional torts.
The majority could have considered my small change and protected the
commonsense State laws that are already on the books. Instead, under
the 112th Congress, relentless partisanship has poisoned this well and
impeded our ability to write good laws. Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, perhaps
the reason Americans are so disenchanted with Congress is because they
know that it doesn't have to be this way.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this legislation.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Chairman, lawsuit abuse drives doctors out of their practices.
There's a well-documented record of doctors leaving the practice of
medicine and of hospitals shutting down, particularly practices that
have high liability exposure. This problem has been particularly acute
in the fields of OB/GYN and trauma care as well as in rural areas.
The absence of doctors in vital practice areas is, at best, an
inconvenience; at worst, it can have deadly consequences. Hundreds or
even thousands of patients may die annually due to a lack of doctors.
According to one State study, 38 percent of physicians have reduced
the number of higher-risk procedures they provide, and 28 percent have
reduced the number of higher-risk patients they serve, all out of fear
of liability.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has concluded
that:
The current legal environment continues to deprive women of
all ages, especially pregnant women, of their most educated
and experienced women's health care providers.
A study from Northwestern University School of Medicine polled
residents and found that many wished to leave the State to avoid its
hostile malpractice environment. The study concluded that:
Approximately one-half of graduating Illinois residents and
fellows are leaving the State to practice. The medical
malpractice liability environment is a major consideration
for those that plan to leave Illinois to practice.
Without a uniform law to control health care costs, many States will
continue to suffer under doctor shortages.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased now to yield as much time as
he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Johnson), a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Today, Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to
this harmful bill, H.R. 5, the so-called Protecting Access to
Healthcare Act.
Now, this bill is premised upon what I would call a story, because
that's what my mamma used to tell me. My mamma and my grandmamma, as I
was growing up, used to say that's wrong to say that someone is lying.
Don't say that. You say that they're telling a story. So I grew up
plagued with the guilt that comes from calling somebody a liar. I still
have that sense of shame associated with that word ``liar.''
I'm not here to accuse anybody of lying, but I will say that H.R. 5,
the so-called Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, is a story, is
premised on the story that runaway frivolous lawsuits, medical
malpractice lawsuits are a major cause of driving the cost of medical
care through the roof. That's not true.
This bill restricts a patient's ability to recover compensation for
damages caused by medical negligence, defective products, and
irresponsible insurance companies. It also sets a cap of $250,000 for
noneconomic compensatory damages which are awarded to victims for
emotional pain and suffering, physical impairment and disfigurement.
I'm so sorry to have not had this photograph blown up. It's a photo
of Caroline Palmer of Marietta, Georgia. Ms. Palmer was in an
automobile accident back on March 23, 2007. She sustained two broken
legs, a broken shoulder, abrasions on her arms, and a collapsed lung.
While she was at the hospital, recuperating, they noticed that her left
hand was swollen, dusky blue, and cool to the touch. But after so
noting on her medical record, the doctor left work that day, and no
further action was taken about that. That was a clear sign that blood
was not flowing to that limb and that something was wrong.
{time} 1930
Nothing was done. No followup. The next day they found that the IV
line had been misplaced in her arm, and they referred her in for some
treatments to try to reinvigorate the circulation in that arm, and
there was nothing they could do.
They tried everything. They even subjected Caroline to a procedure on
both arms to relieve the pressure and treat the loss of circulation by
producing a large gaping hole in both arms, and that procedure failed.
Whereupon, she then was subjected to the cutting off of her left arm
and the cutting off of her right arm.
Now, we've talked a lot about, well, how much is a leg worth? How
much is a leg worth when you lose a leg? Well, how much are two legs
worth? How much are two arms worth?
This picture shows Caroline Palmer in this horrendous state; and
under this amendment, under this bill, H.R. 5, this woman, this victim,
would be limited to $250,000 for her pain and suffering and
disfigurement, and that's not right.
How do you put a cap on someone's pain and suffering? How heartless
is it to cap noneconomic damages when one has lost a limb? becomes
blind?
How much is vision worth? How much is the ability to see? How much is
that worth? $250,000, under this legislation.
If you become paralyzed at the hands of a negligent health care
provider, can no longer walk, how much is that worth? $250,000.
These caps hurt the most vulnerable among us: children, senior
citizens, and working poor. They can't even recover for economic losses
such as lost wages. They may not be working. A child doesn't work. A
child left with no arms is limited in noneconomic damages to $250,000.
He's got to roll with that for the rest of his life--$250,000. It's not
right.
Medical malpractice is about real people with real injuries. The
Institute of Medicine estimates that 98,000 people die each year in the
United States from preventable medical errors. Tort reform proposals,
such as H.R. 5, fail to address the deaths and injuries associated with
preventable medical errors every year.
Now, this, H.R. 5, is an unholy alliance between two stories: the one
story which I just outlined to you and the
[[Page H1484]]
other story being the repeal of the 15-person Independent Payment
Advisory Board, also known as IPAB, which was created under RomneyCare.
Oops, I mean ObamaCare. Oops, I mean, the Affordable Care Act.
Now, while I do believe that there are some good reasons to be
opposed to the IPAB and to vote to abolish it--I believe there are some
good reasons for that--the rationing of medical care is not one of
them. Anyone who says that this IPAB board has the power to cut the
benefits paid to Medicare recipients has either not read the bill or is
telling you a story.
Just for the record, I want to read 42 U.S.C. section G, 1395kkk. I'm
not going to comment on the kkk right now, but that's the subsection of
the subsection of 42 U.S.C. where the law that was passed, RomneyCare--
I mean ObamaCare, I mean Affordable Health Care Act--is stated, the
law, 42 U.S.C., and it says:
The proposal shall not include any recommendation to ration
health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums
under section 1818, 1818A, or 1839, increase Medicare
beneficiary cost-sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance,
and copayments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify
eligibility criteria.
That is what ObamaCare, RomneyCare--I mean the Affordable Health Care
Act--provides for. That's the law. Anybody who tells you otherwise is
telling you a story.
Going back to the first story, I really oppose it for the reasons
that I've previously stated. This bill is another example of the
Republican majority bringing a partisan bill to the House floor that
has virtually no chance of becoming a law. H.R. 5 does not create any
jobs or grow the economy. It's a slap in the face, also, of states'
rights--something we've heard--that the other side has depended on for
a long time, states' rights, the 10th Amendment.
H.R. 5, ladies and gentlemen, denies States their right to have their
own tort laws. The State of Georgia, for instance, in its constitution,
says that all citizens are entitled to a jury trial. The legislature
imposed a $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice
and other cases. The case went up to the Georgia Supreme Court, which
ruled that to limit noneconomic damages deprives one of their
constitutional right to a jury trial. This bill, H.R. 5, would do away
with what the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled insofar as Georgia law is
concerned. It's a gross overstepping of Federal legislation into the
affairs of the State, and I oppose it.
I understand that there was a meeting yesterday, a specially called
meeting that Majority Leader Eric Cantor called of the Tea Party
Republican Caucus to kind of tighten some screws and twist some arms to
get the caucus to go along with H.R. 5 so that no one would get
embarrassed. Now, we've yet to see what will happen, but I believe that
all of the Tea Party Republicans will fall into line and vote in favor
of H.R. 5, which has absolutely no chance of passing once it goes to
the other body.
{time} 1940
I want to thank the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, John
Conyers, for giving me this time.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield such time as
he may require to the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, who happens
to be the sponsor of the legislation we're considering tonight, the
HEALTH Act.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the
Judiciary Committee for yielding to me and the opportunity to follow
directly my colleague from Georgia on the other side of the aisle.
A number of things were said. I feel grateful to have the opportunity
to address those.
One of the comments that the gentleman made, the gentleman is my good
friend, and he would agree with that. But in regard to this emergency
caucus meeting with the Tea Party Caucus on the Republican side with
our majority leader, Eric Cantor, I am an original member of the Tea
Party Caucus in the House of Representatives. If there had been any
emergency-called meeting, Mr. Chairman, I can assure you that I would
have been right there with Michele Bachmann and Steve King and others,
the 20 of us that were original members of the House GOP Tea Party
Caucus. There was no such meeting.
Let me refute that statement, although I greatly respect my friend
from Georgia, from DeKalb.
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I will be glad to yield to my friend.
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. I certainly don't want to misstate what
actually happened, and I think I said that it's my understanding that
that meeting was held. That's the information that I received.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Reclaiming my time, and he did say that. He
said it was his understanding. He didn't say it was a matter of fact. I
appreciate that comment.
But another thing, Mr. Chairman, that I want to address, he named
names. I think the lady's name was Ms. Palmer of Marietta, Georgia. I
live in Marietta, Georgia, and have for the last 36 years. I represent
Marietta, Georgia, in the 11th Congressional District and have for the
last 9\1/2\ years.
The description of this unfortunate soul's injuries and the things
that happened to her, the broken bones, the collapsed lung, the lack of
blood flow to the extremities because of an improper placement of an
intravenous line, maybe instead of in a vein in an artery, that
resulted in amputations of her upper extremities. When the general
public hears stuff like that, Mr. Chairman, they're horrified.
To think that we on this side of the aisle with H.R. 5, the HEALTH
Act, which is part of the PATH Act that we are discussing on the floor
today, to suggest that a person that suffers like that could only
recover $250,000 in non-compensatory pain and suffering is absolutely
untrue.
The gentleman, my friend from DeKalb, is an attorney. He knows the
legal system. He's been in the courtroom. I'm not sure whether he's
tried on the side of the plaintiff or the defense in regard to medical
malpractice cases, but he clearly knows the difference in noneconomic
pain and suffering in regard to this particular bill, and, on the other
hand, recovery for severe losses, medical compensation, loss of wages,
loss of extremities, what this poor soul suffered.
Let me just read, Mr. Chairman, this comment: Nothing in the HEALTH
Act denies injured plaintiffs the ability to obtain adequate redress,
including compensation for 100 percent of their economic loss.
Essentially, anything to which a receipt can be attached. Believe me,
the plaintiff's attorney will attach every receipt, including the
medical costs, the cost of pain relief medication, their loss of wages,
their future lost wages, rehabilitation costs, and any other economic
out-of-pocket loss suffered as a result of a health care injury.
Economic damages include anything whose value can be quantified,
including lost wages, home services, au pair, companion to go shopping,
medical costs, rehabilitation of a home, access for someone who has an
incapacity, an inability to access a normal home.
So, the gentleman, just like the gentleman from Iowa, the plaintiff's
attorney that spoke on the floor earlier in regard to misleading
statements, to suggest that in this legislation we would take away the
ability of a person like Ms. Palmer of Marietta, Georgia, for a full
and complete redress of grievances if a medical practitioner or a
facility has performed below the standard of care for that local
community--my colleague, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the
distinguished chairman, gave me some statistics in regard to some of
the economic losses that people have incurred and judgments that have
been awarded by a jury of their peers.
Listen to this, Mr. Chairman. In August of 2010, Contra Costa County,
a judgment for $5,500,000. These are California cases, by the way, Mr.
Chairman. It's California law that H.R. 5 is based on. MICRA passed
back in 1975.
But these are cases in 2010. This one in February 2010, Riverside
County, $16,500,000; November, 2009, Los Angeles County, $5 million;
October, 2009, Sacramento County, $5,750,000. I will go down to the
last one, although there are several others on the list. July, 2007,
Los Angeles County, an award of $96,400,000. This, Mr. Chairman, is in
2007. MICRA was passed in 1975.
[[Page H1485]]
This case in 2007, this plaintiff may have been awarded $250,000
noneconomic because there was a cap. But the cap is there not to deny
them their day in court, their ability to be judged by a jury of their
peers and a decision made in regard to just compensation.
There are 21 members of the House GOP Doctors Caucus. It includes 16
physicians, a psychologist, several dentists, several registered
nurses. I'll guarantee you, Mr. Chairman, in every one of these cases I
mentioned coming out of California, we would be sitting there fighting
for those plaintiffs. Maybe even a witness for the plaintiff, for Mrs.
Palmer, to say the sky is the limit, and, Mr. Plaintiff's Attorney, you
tack on every economic cost that you can dream up, and we'll vote in
favor of it.
But what we are opposed to, Mr. Chairman, is this opportunity for
people to come in to court and clog up the court system and crowd out
Mrs. Palmer and maybe many of these cases from California with
frivolous lawsuits where there is no justification for the claim, where
people are just hoping with a lottery mentality that some sympathetic
jury will just simply say, Oh, gosh, we know there's no damage here.
But after all, the doctor has $10 million worth of insurance. It's not
coming out of his pocket. Let's award the plaintiff $6 million or $8
million worth of noneconomic pain and suffering--if you want to call it
that--in damages.
{time} 1950
That's the thing that's got to stop. That's what's causing the price
of health care to rise astronomically. That's why doctors are ordering
all of these unnecessary tests and practicing defensive medicine. Every
time a patient comes to the emergency room with a headache, even though
the doctor is skilled in physical diagnosis, in taking a history, and
can examine that patient and look in their eyes, making sure there is
no bulge of the pupils or the optic discs, they know that patient has a
tension headache. They know it's perfectly safe to send him or her home
with a prescription to return in 24 hours. But, no, because of these
frivolous lawsuits, they're going to order a CAT scan that costs
$1,500. You multiple that time and time and time again, that's what
this is all about. That's the problem we're trying to solve.
For my friend from DeKalb--and he is my great friend--or my friend
from Iowa or, indeed, the former Speaker, the minority leader, Ms.
Pelosi, to come to the floor and very eloquently--and she is eloquent
and speaks with a lot of passion, great ability, a great communicator--
but to mislead is downright wrong.
The truth needs no adjectives, Mr. Chairman. The truth is what is in
the PATH Act, H.R. 5. And I say to my colleagues: We need to pass this
and do this in a bipartisan way and not worry here about what's going
to happen in the Senate. Let's do the right thing in the House of
Representatives, and let's do the people's work.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute to ask my friend
and distinguished medical practicer and Member of Congress, Mr.
Gingrey, is he aware that his bill, H.R. 5, eliminates joint and
several liability for both economic and noneconomic damages?
I yield to the gentleman for that purpose.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. This is
his time, and I appreciate him yielding. It gives me an opportunity to
explain in regard to joint and several liability.
Mr. Chairman, it's important for our colleagues on the House floor
and anyone within shouting distance to understand what we're talking
about in regard to joint and several liability.
Under current law, anyone who is named as a defendant in a medical
malpractice suit is liable for whatever judgment is rendered. It
matters not how much they participate in the case.
Let me give my good friend from Michigan, the ranking member of the
Judiciary Committee, an example. Of course he knows this. Let's say
it's an OB/GYN case and the surgeon who has done a hysterectomy on
Friday is going to church on Sunday morning and asks his colleague to
stop by and see the patient and to tell her that he'll be around that
afternoon to check on her. The doctor says, sure, I'll be glad to.
He peeks his head in the door and Mrs. Jones said, I'm fine.
Okay. Your doctor will be around this afternoon to check on you.
Things go to heck in a hand basket. The operating physician maybe has
practiced below the standard of care. But that doctor that covered,
that peeked in the door, that really had nothing to do with the case,
surely, as Mr. Conyers knows, will be named in the lawsuit. And if he
or she happens to have the deepest pockets under the current law, they
could be liable for the entire judgment; whereas the doctor who
practiced below the standard of care, who has a shallow pocket, would
get off scot-free.
I yield back to my friend, and I thank you for the opportunity.
The Acting CHAIR (Mr. Nugent). The time of the gentleman from
Michigan has expired.
Mr. CONYERS. I yield myself an additional minute, and I thank Dr.
Gingrey for his response.
I ask the author of this bill, H.R. 5, if the answer to my question
of whether H.R. 5 eliminates joint and several liability for both
economic and noneconomic damages is ``yes''?
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. The answer is ``yes.''
Mr. CONYERS. I thank the gentleman very much.
Mr. Chairman, I am now pleased to yield as much time as she may
consume to the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Let me thank the ranking member and also
the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the leadership for giving
us the opportunity to celebrate, as we debate H.R. 5, the Affordable
Care Act, which is 2 years in the making.
Clearly, it speaks to where we are today. So in celebration of the
Affordable Care Act, let me first of all wish it a happy anniversary.
Before I start on the Affordable Care Act, let me indicate to my good
friend from Georgia and the Physicians Caucus that many of us do not
take a back seat to our support for physicians. How can I help myself,
coming from a community where the Texas Medical Center is fighting for
a permanent doctor fix, which we've not been able to secure from this
Congress, and as well, being a champion of physician-owned hospitals.
Because I do believe that physicians have a high level, an acuteness of
their concern for their patient. Maybe it is also because in the last
decade I've had to tend to ailing parents, both of whom I lost, and
have seen doctors up close and personal dealing with one of the most
difficult times in any child's life.
This is not about a fight of one side or another regarding doctors,
and my constituents have been kind enough to give me time here to have
gone through these debates over and over again. Let me just say very
quickly: I am glad the Affordable Care Act is in place, because what
we're celebrating today, as we talk about H.R. 5, is that women will
not be dropped from insurance when they get sick or pregnant; insurance
companies will not require women to obtain preauthorization for
referral for access to an OB/GYN; millions of older women with chronic
conditions will not be banned from care; 279,000 constituents in the
18th Congressional District will have improved employee health care;
187,000 uninsured in the 18th Congressional District will now have
access to health care; and my hospitals, my public hospitals, my Texas
Children's Hospital, St. Luke's, Methodist, Ben Taub, M.D. Anderson
will be able to secure compensation in uncompensated care. I celebrate
the Affordable Care Act.
But today we're discussing legislation that has already received a
veto notice from the President, but we're here on the floor of the
House discussing H.R. 5 and ignoring the fact that the Affordable Care
Act has already confirmed health care is vital to America, and we in
the Congress must protect it.
By the way, the Affordable Care Act is a preserver of Medicare and
strengthens Medicare.
{time} 2000
But let me tell you what we are facing with this legislation that is
anchored with the component dealing with medical malpractice. We have
[[Page H1486]]
seen documentation across States that, in fact, medical malpractice is
an insurance issue. And even when there is an attempt to, in essence,
dumb down the recovery, we have seen that the insurance companies do
not, in essence, reward the physicians. Insurance premiums are still
high, high, high, high, high. How do I know? You can go to the State of
Texas and ask physicians are their insurance premiums such that they're
celebrating today. Yes, there were some measured declines, but they are
paying high insurance premiums.
Now, in the findings of H.R. 5, our friends cite the Commerce Clause
and indicate that Congress has a right to write this bill on health
care because of the Commerce Clause. As I understand it, many are
pursuing the challenge of the Affordable Care Act, suggesting we had no
authority. But in their own bill, the findings cite interstate commerce
as the basis of writing this bill. But there are some friends over
there that just caught it, and one of the amendments from another
gentleman from Georgia strikes the findings. This is a case of ``have
your cake and eat it too'' because they know that tort law has, for a
long time, been the prerogative of States.
So to cite President Reagan when he gave this seminal talk on tort
law in 1986, his words:
So over the years, tort law has helped us drive the
negligent out of the marketplace. This, in turn, has
permitted legitimate economic innovation to take its course
and raise living standards throughout the Nation.
So the President agrees that tort law drives the negligent out of the
arena. He then goes on to say, as he put together this task force:
To be sure, much tort law would remain to be reformed by
the 50 States, not the Federal Government. And in our Federal
system of government, this is only right.
So my friends cannot deny that H.R. 5 implodes State law. It takes
away the authority of States. And removing it by some late amendment is
not going to make it right. You are going to violate the rights of
Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, and West
Virginia that have enacted their own medical malpractice damage caps.
You are going to implode the rights of Connecticut, Iowa, New York,
Oregon, and Tennessee that have expressly chosen not to limit. And in
this bill, if you have not limited it, then you are capped. In this
bill, you rid the rights of those States that have not capped, and the
flexibility only comes if you have capped and it is higher than what we
have, and you obliterate constitutional State law that has its own
caps.
So this is not as black-and-white as my good friends would like to
make it. We are riding in on the high horse, and we are not?
For example, in my State of Texas, on May 29, 2010, Connie Spears
went to a hospital reporting excruciating leg pain. This was all too
familiar due to her previous blood clots. The emergency room doctor ran
tests and discharged her with a bilateral leg pain. But what really
happened is that she had blood clots around a vein filter. She got
kidney failure. She went unconscious. To save her life, two legs were
amputated. There was definitive negligence. And it is important to note
that she sits today with no legs.
What we are suggesting is that we are now intruding into State law,
that this individual now, under Federal law, loses noneconomic damages
for pain and suffering and the extent of the negligence that was
promoted and, as well, faces a Federal hard hat to prevent her from
having relief. Now, this is in the State of Texas, and we have tort law
reform that many oppose, but it is a State decision.
I offered an amendment that would have carved out an exemption for
health care lawsuits for serious and irreversible injury, supported by
two of my colleagues, Congressman Hank Johnson and Mr. Quigley. It
exempted victims of malpractice that resulted in irreversible injury,
including loss of limbs and loss of reproductive ability, from the
$250,000 cap. This was not accepted.
What we say today is people like Connie Spears, children, seniors who
are limited in their noneconomic damages, now have no basis for
punishing those who were blatant in their negligence, no way of dealing
in a punitive manner to prevent these kinds of acts from happening and
recognizing the loss of limbs of someone who may have been unemployed.
My friends cannot have it both ways, that is, challenging the
Affordable Care Act because they say that interstate commerce does not
allow us to do good, but yet coming back in their findings to suggest
they have the upper hand.
Well, I'm going to join my friend on the other side of the aisle, Mr.
Johnson, on states' rights. Today, on H.R. 5, you literally quash and
extinguish states' rights; and in the course of doing so, you quash the
rights of injured patients, for those that Ronald Reagan said to get
negligence out of the marketplace, out of the way of those who need
care so that the good can rise up.
So I would make the argument that we're now debating in a conflicted
manner. I don't know what the positions of Republicans are. They want
to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which was premised on interstate
commerce, the authority of Congress. They come right back at our 2-year
anniversary, celebrating people who are living because of the
Affordable Care Act, and now want to place their hat on doing this on
interstate commerce. I want to know where all the states' rights
advocates are and why you are abolishing and eliminating constitutional
State law, why you are eliminating statutory law where individual
States have expressed their will.
I believe this bill, along with the component that wants to dash the
Affordable Care Act, is a bill destined for the President's veto. But
more importantly, let me try to understand how we can have our good
friends on the other side of the aisle have their cake and eat it too.
I'm celebrating with the celebratory cake of the Affordable Care Act.
I don't mind celebrating this Congress' right to help save lives.
How do you put a bill on the floor of the House where you have argued
that there is no right for us to be involved in health care, and now
you want to dash the rights of those who have been injured through
interstate commerce and the Congress of the United States of America?
Frankly, the complexity of your argument is such that it makes no
sense; and, frankly, I hope that my colleagues will join me and applaud
the Affordable Care Act, celebrate the expanded life that we have
provided, and also recognize that those individuals who seek remedy in
the marketplace, who have been injured by negligence and acts that have
been dastardly, are compensated in a fair and just manner. That is all
we ask under the Constitution: due process and the rights of all
Americans.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate Chairman Smith
yielding to me. And, of course, with great hesitation do I rise,
because the gentlewoman who just spoke was recently rated one of the
most eloquent, if not the most eloquent, Members of this body.
But even though she is eloquent, with all due respect, I think she is
wrong. And with regard to the issue of the Commerce Clause and the
issue of the Affordable Care Act, PPACA, and as is sometimes referred
to, and not really pejoratively--if successful, it will be his legacy--
ObamaCare.
{time} 2010
This bill, Mr. Chairman, was created by forcing individuals to engage
in commerce; that is, to purchase health insurance, under the penalty
or a tax--I'm not sure from day to day how they're going to describe
it, but without question that's not constitutional. And I expect maybe
it will be a 5 4 decision in June of the Supreme Court, but maybe 9 0,
because that is clearly unconstitutional. It is not applicable under
the Commerce Clause to force people to engage in commerce. The
Constitution says to regulate interstate commerce.
Of course, that is very much applicable in H.R. 5, in the Medical
Liability Reform Act. Because when you have a situation in health care
where there is no provision for certain medical specialties in a high-
risk area like neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiovascular
surgery, where babies have to be delivered beside the road.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
[[Page H1487]]
Mr. SMITH of Texas. I yield the gentleman 2 additional minutes.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
But clearly the gentlelady from Texas--and I think she knows this.
Texas has enacted tort reform. They have caps that are different in
fact than originally existed in California 35 years ago. The result in
Texas, if all of my colleagues from Texas on this side of the aisle are
truthful with me, is that the problem in Texas has stabilized.
Physicians are coming back to Texas. There's no shortage of specialists
because of the law that was passed in Texas.
And I want to point out to the gentlewoman, too, that in this bill
there is a provision called flexi-caps that basically says whatever a
State does preempts Federal law in regard to caps on noneconomic, as
well as contingency fees for plaintiffs' attorneys, or any other
provision of the law. State law prevails if they address that either
before this bill is passed or after the bill is passed.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GINGREY. The gentlelady is eloquent but she's wrong on this
issue, and I will yield to her.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Dr. Gingrey, thank you for your kindness
and your kind words. I would say that rather than being wrong, we
disagree.
But what I would say is, if you do not have a cap, then this bill
will supersede the laws in States that say they have no caps. And the
only thing I would conclude on is that your bill is premised, even
though you're citing the individual mandate--and we can quarrel about
that as to whether or not it is a forced-upon mandate or whether there
are options of that individual having employer-based insurance, et
cetera--but it is premised on interstate commerce. And therefore you
have an amendment being offered by one of your members to strike that.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chair, I yield the gentlelady 1 additional minute.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentleman.
The premise of this bill is interstate commerce, which in the initial
arguments being made by my friends on the other side of the aisle, they
argued vigorously that we couldn't even do health care under this
premise, even though we have Medicare. The premise you have in this
bill is under interstate commerce. But you have an amendment that is
seeking to strike your findings because you were caught with a conflict
between dealing with this question congressionally, which we're saying
is legitimate from the perspective of the Affordable Care Act--you're
trying to use it now--but you realize that there are Members who are
now arguing the question of states' rights.
We have existing State law on tort reform--hundreds of years of tort
reform--and you're trying to abolish it, and with this added
legislation on medical malpractice you're now trying to supersede
existing State law.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. CONYERS. I yield the gentlelady 1 additional minute.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Where the amounts of moneys are not capped,
where there are no caps, this bill places the $250,000 in. If there are
no caps. That is an overriding of State law. No matter how you cut it,
it's an overriding of State law enforcement. And you can't have your
cake and eat it, too. I'm willing to celebrate the Affordable Care Act
and eat the cake because it saves lives. But what you're doing here now
is not. You're overriding State laws. Many States.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman
from Arizona (Mr. Quayle), who is an active member of the Judiciary
Committee.
Mr. QUAYLE. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his work on
this important piece of legislation.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 5, the PATH Act, because our
country is in urgent need of medical malpractice reform. Currently, we
have a jackpot justice system that is not based in reality, and it's
badly damaging our country's health care system. Profiteering attorneys
know this. And that's why the number of malpractice suits has been
precipitously rising year after year.
Back in the 1960s, one out of seven physicians would have had a
malpractice claim over their entire lifetime. Today, it's one in seven
physicians are sued each year. That is an astronomical jump in the
number of claims that are being put on doctors. And the doctors are now
being forced out of the profession even when they haven't done anything
wrong. The practice of defensive medicine is harming the quality of
care and pushing up costs. The enormous expense of ensuring a doctor
against liability is making health care inflation much worse, not to
mention the fact that the current system is damaging the doctor-patient
relationship. It damages it in a way because every doctor has to see
every interaction with the patient as a potential lawsuit. That is not
what the doctor-patient relationship should be built on. It should be
built on mutual respect and trust. And until we have something that
actually addresses the medical malpractice problems that we have and we
get the reforms that are much needed, that actual relationship is never
going to improve.
So I urge the House to pass the PATH Act because it will do two vital
things to get health care costs under control: First, it would
eliminate ObamaCare's Independent Payment Advisory Board and thereby
keep a board of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats from restricting
senior access to health care. It also brings medical malpractice
lawsuits under control by capping noneconomic damages and limiting
attorneys' fees so more money will actually go to the victims rather
than overzealous trial lawyers.
These reforms will save taxpayers over $40 billion over the next
decade. Everyone knows that we need to do something about rising health
care costs, and this bill and taking care of the medical malpractice
problems that we have will go a long way in getting those costs under
control. This bill will give every Member of this House the opportunity
to be part of the solution.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 5.
Mr. CONYERS. I yield such time as she may consume to a senior member
of the Judiciary Committee, Maxine Waters of California.
Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much, Mr. Conyers, former chair of the
Judiciary Committee, ranking member, and a gentleman who has provided
superb leadership in opposition to H.R. 5.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 5, poorly titled
Protecting Access to Healthcare, the so-called PATH Act, an
unconstitutional, Big Government bill that violates the 10th Amendment
and states' rights.
{time} 2020
At the very start of the 112th Congress, my colleagues on the
opposite side of the aisle declared that all business conducted in the
House would be consistent with the Constitution. Yet if you read the
constitutional authority statement attached to H.R. 5, the Republican
sponsors seem to believe that the Commerce Clause magically creates a
path for Congress to mandate nationwide caps on punitive damages in all
medical malpractice lawsuits. The Republicans are telling all
Americans, no matter how severe the injury or egregious the mistake by
the doctor, hospital or drug manufacturer, that their losses are going
to be capped at $250,000.
And with all due respect to the gentleman from Georgia,
Representative Gingrey, who introduced H.R. 5, even his own State
supreme court has found caps on punitive damages to be
unconstitutional. In 2010, the Georgia supreme court unanimously struck
down limits on jury awards in medical malpractice cases. The Georgia
court determined that a $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages violates
the right to a jury trial as guaranteed under the Georgia Constitution.
Section 110(a) of H.R. 5 would impose an even lower cap on damages in
Georgia, effectively overturning the court's decision by an act of
Congress. The section reads:
The provisions governing health care lawsuits set forth in
this Act preempt, subject to subsections (b) and (c), State
law to the extent that State law prevents the application of
any provisions of law established by or under this Act.
In addition to Georgia, other States like Arizona, Pennsylvania,
Wyoming
[[Page H1488]]
and Kentucky whose State constitutions specifically prohibit damage
limitations will have their constitutions overruled by Congress.
For Members who have for years now questioned the constitutionality
of the Affordable Care Act, you need but take a look at H.R. 5. H.R. 5
goes far beyond anything passed by the Democratic majority. If you
don't believe me, just listen to Tea Party Nation founder Judson
Phillips. In slamming H.R. 5 he wrote:
Whether you think tort reform is a good idea or not, it is
an issue that belongs to the States, not to the Federal
Government. Tort law has always been governed by the States.
Now, I didn't say that, Mr. Conyers didn't say that, and Ms. Jackson
Lee didn't say that. None of those who have been over here this evening
opposing H.R. 5 and laying out the facts and the consequences of H.R. 5
said this. Let me repeat. I am quoting Tea Party Nation founder Judson
Phillips:
Whether you think tort reform is a good idea or not, it is
an issue that belongs to the States, not to the Federal
Government. Tort law has always been governed by the States.
Even some of my Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee have
expressed concerns. Congressman Poe, Republican from Texas said:
I believe that each individual State should allow the
people of that State to decide--not the Federal Government.
If the people of a particular State don't want liability
caps, that's their prerogative under the 10th Amendment.
Well, let's listen to what Congressman Louie Gohmert, Republican of
Texas, said:
The right of the States for self-determination is enshrined
in the 10th Amendment. I am reticent to support Congress
imposing its will on the States by dictating new State law in
their own State courts.
To my conservative colleagues in this Chamber, don't be tricked.
Don't be fooled. H.R. 5, simply and clearly put, violates states'
rights. Reject this unconstitutional piece of legislation, protect
States' constitutional rights to set tort law and just vote ``no'' on
H.R. 5.
Now, let me just wrap this up by saying that the gentleman from
Georgia referred over and over again, constantly, this evening about
frivolous Californians. And he talked about these juries who didn't
take into consideration the facts on these negligence cases, but rather
looked at the insurance and said, oh, just give them whatever, they
didn't care. Well, I came to defend California and to tell you the
difference between what happened in tort reform in California and what
you have been told by the gentleman from Georgia.
Supporters of H.R. 5 claim that it is the same as MICRA, a medical
malpractice liability law passed in California in 1975. H.R. 5 is far
different from MICRA, except that neither law delivered on lower
insurance premiums. The differences are clear:
H.R. 5 applies damage caps in all ``health care lawsuits,'' including
cases against drug companies, nursing homes, insurance companies and
HMOs. MICRA only applies to malpractice cases against a doctor or a
hospital.
Punitive damages are reserved for only the most egregious medical
malpractice; they are meant to deter future dangerous conduct. H.R. 5
limits punitive damages. MICRA does not cap punitive damages.
H.R. 5 gives total immunity from punitive damages to drug and device
manufacturers if their products have been approved by the FDA or are
``generally recognized as safe and effective.'' MICRA does not provide
this kind of sweeping immunity for the drug industry.
H.R. 5 caps noneconomic damages at $250,000 in the aggregate, no
matter how many parties have been damaged by medical malpractice, even
when an injury results in loss of a marital relationship. California
law recognizes a separate claim for loss of consortium--claims brought
by the spouse of an injured patient. MICRA does not limit these claims.
Joint and several liability, which my leader asked you about, Mr.
Gingrey, enables an individual to bring one claim against any of the
parties involved in a medical malpractice injury and ensures that
injured victims are fully compensated. H.R. 5 completely eliminates
joint liability for both economic and noneconomic losses. California
law only limits joint liability for noneconomic damages.
H.R. 5 and MICRA are alike in one main respect--by themselves,
neither law can deliver on lower medical malpractice insurance
premiums.
H.R. 5 includes unprecedented legal protections for the insurance
industry, but no guarantee that any future savings will be passed onto
doctors or patients.
Following the passage of MICRA, insurance premiums for doctors
increased in California by 450 percent over the next 13 years. Premiums
only decreased after California enacted Proposition 103, a ballot
initiative that mandated a 20 percent rollback in premium rates. I was
in the California legislature when that happened.
H.R. 5 does not guarantee lower premium rates for doctors. In fact,
the bill only mentions insurance companies when giving them protection
from liability.
So, again, I say, don't be fooled, don't be tricked. I don't really
mean to imply, Mr. Gingrey, that you are trying to fool or trick
anybody, but you're simply wrong. We have given our opposition in more
ways than one this evening to H.R. 5. But since you alluded to or
talked about or pointed directly to California and all of these people
who simply have frivolous lawsuits and these poor juries who sit and
don't take into consideration the facts and simply look at how much
insurance is available and just award these tremendous amounts, I had
to add to my testimony this evening a defense and an explanation and
show the difference between MICRA and H.R. 5.
I think I have done that, and I think I have done that with the facts
that exist. I am very pleased that I have been able to join with my
colleagues this evening to not only reveal what H.R. 5 is and is not,
but I think we have made the case. I think that we have put the facts
forward in such a way that we're going to win on this issue. I ask you
to oppose H.R. 5.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume
to the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey.
{time} 2030
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Smith for
yielding to me.
As good a communicator as the gentlewoman from California is, I would
be quick to state that she is not the Great Communicator. The Great
Communicator, of course, was President Ronald Reagan.
The gentlewoman from California talked about comments that were made
on my side of the aisle, members of the Judiciary Committee, and named
a couple of Members on my side of the aisle that were concerned about
federalism and the 10th Amendment and states' rights. I just want to
remind her that, at least from our perspective--and the gentlewoman may
not agree with this at all--but from our perspective on this side of
the aisle, the Great Communicator was President Ronald Reagan.
In a speech in 1986 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, after a
commission had reported to him on this issue of medical liability
reform and the need for same, the President very clearly outlined
almost the identical provisions that are part of MICRA, the Medical
Injury Compensation Reform Act, that was passed in his State that he
governed for 8 years, the great State of California. So, again, the
gentlelady makes her points well; but, quite honestly, I think there's
a bit of embellishment on their side of the aisle.
Who do you trust? The gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Quayle) just spoke
moments ago, Mr. Chairman, about who do we trust. Well, right above
you, as you sit there, first of all, ``In God We Trust.'' In mom and
dad we trust. In Dr. Bailey, Augusta, Georgia, we trust. In uncle we
trust, but that's way down the line, way down the line.
I think our colleagues on the other side of the aisle think that Big
Government should control everything, that they should make the
decisions. That's where ObamaCare came from. To do it, they had to
proffer a 2,800-page bill that is clearly unconstitutional.
H.R. 5 is not unconstitutional. You look at article I, section 8,
clause 3, the Commerce Clause, and clearly it's constitutional.
Requiring someone, forcing someone to engage in commerce, indeed, to
purchase health insurance
[[Page H1489]]
under the penalty of a tax is unconstitutional, and that will be
determined by the Supreme Court.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, we have no further requests for time. With
the agreement of the chairman of the committee, I would like to close
at this point.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, we have no other speakers as well,
and I am prepared to close on this side.
The Acting CHAIR. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. CONYERS. I'd like to thank all of the Members on both sides of
the aisle that have participated in this important debate. There has
been a lot of clarity, even though there has been a great difference in
opinion.
I return the balance of my time with this thought in mind, that even
though the author of this bill is a well-regarded medical practitioner
and a distinguished Member of the body, he is a doctor, but he is not a
lawyer.
I commend him on the fact that he agreed with the statement that to
me determines a lot of people's point of view about this very
controversial bill that is now before the floor, H.R. 5. That is, he
agreed and answered in the affirmative that H.R. 5 eliminates joint and
several liability for economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages. To
me, with all the cases that have been of human suffering, of injury to
women and children, of how wrong it would be to limit all of these
kinds of damages to $250,000 in this 21st century is an insult to
common sense and fair play.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Will the ranking member yield?
Mr. CONYERS. I will yield to the gentleman.
Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. I appreciate very much you yielding to me for
that, because clarification needs to be made.
You're suggesting that what I said was there would be a limitation of
$250,000 because of the elimination of joint and several liability.
That's not true at all. Whatever the judgment is, the $250,000 in
noneconomic, the $10 million in economic, would be apportioned to the
defendants in proportion to their liability. That's what the
elimination of joint and several liability means, eliminating this
deep-pocket mentality of plaintiff's attorneys.
Mr. CONYERS. Well, through the Chairman, I accept the comments of the
gentleman from Georgia. I assume that his response to my question
earlier is still ``yes.'' If that is the case, then all I can say is
that I think there are very few people in the Federal legislature or
among our citizenry who would say that there should not be an unlimited
amount of recovery. The gentleman must have some feeling for the fact
that $250,000 for the rest of the person's life, if they lose arms or
legs, eyes, it's just unacceptable. I won't say that it's immoral, but
it's unfair.
It's my hope that most of our colleagues, as we continue this debate
tomorrow, will realize that that is the fatal flaw in a bill that may
have some justification in other parts of it, but that limitation of
damages cannot be rationalized nor justified by the collective body of
this legislature. For that reason, sir, I am urging all of our
colleagues to consider this one point that I make tonight, as I close,
as to be controlling in their decision that they will make as we vote
tomorrow on this bill.
I thank all of the Members that have joined in this debate this
evening.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Mr. Chairman, I just want to reemphasize again that, under this bill,
awards are possible that far exceed the $250,000 cap in noneconomic
damages. That's because under the economic damages provision, there is
simply no cap. As a result of that, States like California and Texas,
which have adopted reforms very similar to the reforms in this
particular piece of legislation, there have been numerous awards of
multimillion dollars awarded to individuals who have been injured.
{time} 2040
So even though we had that $250,000 noneconomic cap, that is not an
absolute cap on the awards that have been made.
A minute ago, Dr. Gingrey mentioned that in California, for example,
several years ago, I believe it was 2007, there was a $96 million
award. And in the last year for which we have records, in 2010, there
were awards, I think, for over $6 million, over $10 million, over $14
million. So an individual is able to be reimbursed for the costs and
the injuries that that individual may have incurred.
Mr. Chairman, I also want to say that America's medical liability
system increases the cost of health care and decreases access to care
as doctors abandon their practices and avoid high-risk specialties out
of fear of being sued. Medical liability reform, this bill tonight will
solve this problem.
According to the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 5 years
after tort reform legislation passed in my home State of Texas, the
number of physicians in the State increased by 24 percent. That is
twice the rate of growth in population over the same period of time.
Other States have seen similar results.
But most States have not enacted meaningful reforms and, as a result,
frivolous lawsuits have created a medical liability crisis. This crisis
has forced women to drive great distances to deliver their babies
because their local hospital doesn't have an OB GYN.
It has resulted in those who need complicated procedures being placed
on waiting lists for months because the only available specialist has
too many patients who seek care, and it has caused accident victims to
lose their lives because their local emergency room no longer has a
trauma center. America's broken medical liability system has caused
patients to lose access to high-quality health services.
The liability reforms contained in the HEALTH Act will do these
things: lead to a significant savings in health care expenses, reduce
the practice of defensive medicine, halt the departure of doctors from
high-litigation States and medical specialties, improve access to
health care, and increase the affordability of health insurance. Also,
according to the Congressional Budget Office, this legislation will
reduce the Federal deficit by more than $45 billion over the next 10
years. This is a significant savings in a time of escalating deficits
and debt.
We've seen the positive effects that similar medical liability
reforms have had at the State level. Reforms in States like California
and Texas have enhanced patient care, reduced doctor shortages, and
decreased cost. It's time for Congress to enact these reforms for the
benefit of all Americans.
Mr. Chairman, before I yield back the balance of my time, I'd like to
thank the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, who has spoken so well
so many times tonight, for introducing this piece of legislation that
is going to help so many people across America.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. SCHWARTZ. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the bill before us.
H.R. 452, the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act, had clear
bipartisan support.
As a co-sponsor, I am deeply disappointed by Republicans' decision to
link this legislation to an unrelated and partisan issue. This rule
ensured that repealing IPAB would not be given serious consideration in
the House.
My support for IPAB repeal reflects my confidence in and commitment
to Medicare payment and delivery system reforms in the Affordable Care
Act that will improve quality, increase efficiency and care
coordination, and not only save lives but reduce costs.
IPAB is not a ``death panel'' or a ``rationing board.'' IPAB is
simply the wrong approach to the right goal.
Abdicating responsibility for legislating sound health care policy,
whether to an unelected commission or private insurers, undermines our
ability to represent the needs of our constituents.
Republicans have once again demonstrated that political showmanship
trumps legitimate concerns expressed by seniors and the medical
community.
Linking IPAB repeal to tort reform--an unrelated, divisive, and
polarizing issue--has brought what was once a bipartisan effort to a
screeching halt.
I urge my colleagues to vote against this partisan stunt and put our
Nation's seniors first.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Chair, over the course of the last 2 years since
the President signed the so called Affordable Care Act into law,
bipartisan opposition to many portions of this legislation has steadily
grown in this Chamber.
I have called for a full repeal of the law, however, it is vital that
the most damaging sections be repealed here and now. One of
[[Page H1490]]
the most clearly flawed aspects of the Affordable Care Act is the
creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board.
As the House puts forward ideas to protect and save Medicare, the
Administration has decided it can better serve seniors by cutting
Medicare by more than $575 billion to create a panel of unelected,
unaccountable Washington bureaucrats tasked with cutting Medicare even
further.
More than 230 of my colleagues in the House and over 380 groups
representing doctors, patients and employers have joined us in
opposition to the IPAB. I urge the Senate and President to stand with
us against this overreach of government power and pass the Protecting
Access to Healthcare Act.
The Acting CHAIR. All time for general debate has expired.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now
rise.
The motion was agreed to.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr.
Griffith of Virginia) having assumed the chair, Mr. Nugent, Acting
Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union,
reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill
(H.R. 5) to improve patient access to health care services and provide
improved medical care by reducing the excessive burden the liability
system places on the health care delivery system, had come to no
resolution thereon.
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