[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H2367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      SUSTAINABLE GROWTH RATE FIX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to discuss the issue of Medicare 
and Medicare reimbursement payments to doctors who provide health care 
for our seniors.
  Currently, the reimbursement formula for our doctors who provide 
these services is one that has become so low that many doctors in 
America aren't providing services and care to our seniors.
  It brings me to a bill that is coming up tomorrow in the House. It is 
the doc fix. It is a fix to the SGR. What that means is, there is on 
the horizon a 24 percent cut coming to Medicare reimbursements for our 
doctors who provide care for our seniors.
  If that cut goes into effect, it is going to have a devastating 
impact on the care that our seniors can receive. So tomorrow we are 
going to have a fix on the floor that takes away the threat of the 24 
percent cut, and we pay for it. What we do is we bring certainty to the 
doctors who provide this care for our seniors and stability to the 
payment system.
  Now, this isn't the first time this issue has been brought up. This 
has been an ongoing problem, and so today, on throwback Thursday, we 
are going to take a trip down memory lane. Four years ago, during the 
ObamaCare debate, House Republicans brought up this very issue and 
said: Listen, let's not hold our seniors hostage. Let's actually come 
forward together and have a doc fix that is paid for to make sure our 
seniors don't get cut in regard to reimbursements. My colleagues across 
the aisle said ``no'' to this fix that was paid for, and in the end we 
have had to have short-term fixes that I think threaten the care for 
our seniors.
  I hope all my colleagues tomorrow will stand with us to have a long-
term fix to this program, to make sure our seniors aren't held 
vulnerable to potential inaction by Congress.
  I also want to talk about what happened in regard to our seniors in 
the ObamaCare debate. Instead of fixing payment in Medicare to our 
doctors for our seniors, instead of shoring up a plan that helps our 
seniors, instead of doing that, what my friends across the aisle did in 
ObamaCare is they looked for a pay-for, and they saw a pot of money in 
Medicare, and they took almost a trillion dollars out of Medicare to 
use for ObamaCare.
  News flash: the CBO, and the President, everybody acknowledges that 
Medicare is on a pathway to going broke. Twelve years from now it runs 
out of money. So instead of shoring up the fund, making sure that we 
meet the promise to our seniors, my friends across the aisle took 
almost a trillion dollars out of it, making it more vulnerable.
  Then, a program that works well, especially for my seniors back in 
Wisconsin, Medicare Advantage--taking money out of Medicare Advantage, 
a program that actually works, giving some choice and control to our 
seniors. I think our seniors deserve better than this. The war on the 
seniors should stop, and is going to stop hopefully tomorrow with a 
bipartisan effort that does what we should have done in the ObamaCare 
debate but fixes payments to doctors so they can continue to provide 
lifesaving health care to our seniors.
  Let's stand together as a House. Let's stand with our seniors. Let's 
get this done tomorrow.

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