[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 25, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E432]
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. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 14, 2014

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, using Medicare as a political pawn in 
their 51st attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act is a new low, 
even for House Republicans.
  Americans are waiting for Congress to stop wasting time and start 
passing constructive solutions to the real challenges this country 
faces. The broken Medicare physician payment system is one such 
challenge. And there is a bipartisan, bicameral plan to reform Medicare 
physician payments to promote quality and efficiency.
  Unfortunately, today's vote isn't about that plan at all. We know 
this because the bill includes a poison pill that guarantees it will 
never become law. This is nothing more than one more tired exercise in 
Republicans indulging their obsessive hatred of the Affordable Care 
Act. Rather than working with Democrats to reach agreement on how to 
advance Medicare payment reform in a fiscally responsible way, 
Republicans instead attached a five-year delay of the Affordable Care 
Act's requirement that everyone take responsibility for having health 
insurance. The White House has indicated the President would veto this 
bill if it were to reach his desk.
  Private health insurers object to today's anti-Obamacare exercise. 
America's Health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross BlueShield Association 
wrote:

       ``we have deep concerns about packaging the Medicare 
     physician payment bill with legislation that would sever the 
     link between the ACA's individual mandate and its market 
     reforms. The experience of states that attempted this in the 
     1990s demonstrates that removing this important linkage will 
     result in more uninsured Americans, higher costs, and reduced 
     choices for individuals and families. To avoid these 
     outcomes, we are asking Congress to reject efforts to repeal 
     or delay the individual mandate in the debate on Medicare 
     physician payment reform.''

  The American Academy of Family Physicians had this to say:

       ``It is disturbing that work designed to expand access to 
     quality health care would be advanced alongside a policy that 
     deliberately removes access to quality health care coverage. 
     Providing access to health care coverage for millions of 
     Medicare beneficiaries while eliminating access to health 
     care coverage for millions more is simply poor public policy 
     and we urge that such approach be abandoned.''

  This vote today is further evidence--as if any more were needed--that 
Republicans in Congress simply are not serious about addressing our 
real challenges. We need to fix Medicare physician payments. We need to 
improve opportunity in this country. We need to raise the minimum wage. 
We need to renew extended unemployment benefits. Currently over two 
million Americans out of work through no fault of their own have been 
left in the lurch by Republicans' refusal to renew these benefits. We 
were elected to this body to solve problems, not to posture endlessly.
  If Congressional Republicans were serious about fixing Medicare 
physician payments, they would not pull stunts like this. If they cared 
more about solving problems than they do about fulfilling their anti-
Obamacare fetish, they would not pull stunts like this. Americans 
deserve better. Medicare beneficiaries deserve better, as do the 
doctors who treat them. To the majority, I say, stop wasting everyone's 
time.

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