[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[House]
[Pages 29259-29260]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       STOP THE MEDICARE INSANITY

  (Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, very few decisions are more 
personal or important than health care decisions. And when Washington 
gets involved in health care, especially in Medicare, government must 
put patients first.
  Decisions already made, if not changed, will result in 38 percent of 
the doctors seeing fewer Medicare patients, half of physicians less 
likely to participate in Medicare Advantage and a third of the doctors 
no longer visiting nursing homes.
  Unless Congress acts, the ability for seniors to access quality 
medical care will get worse.
  The way our government pays doctors for taking care of our parents 
and our grandparents through Medicare is unbelievably broken. 
Physicians will be subjected to a 26 percent pay cut over the next 5 
years, and an official of the government agency in charge of Medicare 
said they will cut doctors pay until they stop seeing Medicare patients 
and then they might fix it.

[[Page 29260]]

  Mr. Speaker, then will be too late.
  Americans deserve better from their representatives. Those who care 
for all of us are being driven out of business by a government that 
cares more about money than health. Let's stop this insanity.

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