[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 18, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SGR REPEAL AND MEDICARE PROVIDER PAYMENT MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2014

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. YVETTE D. CLARKE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 14, 2014

  Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to oppose H.R. 
4015, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act.
  For years, I have worked with my colleagues, hospitals, and doctors 
to temporarily repair a permanent problem. We have continued placing a 
Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. The Band-Aid doesn't work anymore. We need 
some serious treatment for this SGR wound. However, the suture we need 
is not H.R. 4015.
  This bill is just another attempt by Republicans to undermine the law 
that is the Affordable Care Act. Their weak attempt at yet another 
delay of ACA's individual mandate will not be accepted by the American 
people. Millions of Americans are benefiting from ACA. They now have 
access to free preventative care; they are now no longer denial 
coverage due to preexisting conditions; and parents can now keep their 
children on their healthcare plan until age 26.
  It is important to recognize that the bill, in its original form, 
stood as a bipartisan agreement. It was a permanent fix to the SGR 
problem. To have physicians paid based on merit, using a metric system 
to access doctors on the quality of care given not the quantity of 
patients seen, served to benefit the medical community and the patients 
in their care.
  However, the Republicans have poisoned this bipartisan agreement 
making it impossible for me to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 4015. Specifically, 
they are delaying ACA's individual mandate for five years by changing 
the penalty for failing to purchase health insurance to zero (0) until 
2019.
  There is no argument that a SGR permanent fix is necessary. However, 
it should not, and will not, be at the expense of hard-working 
Americans who now have access to health care that they may not have had 
before the Affordable Care Act.
  It is imperative that we continue to work in a bipartisan way to seek 
a solution to the SGR problem, because H.R. 4015--in its current form--
is not the solution.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in voting ``no'' on this bill.

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