[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14310]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SAVE OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Madam Speaker, it is easy to be in Washington, 
DC, making bold predictions and promises and then ignore the realities 
right in front of our noses. Congress' failure to meet the July 1 
deadline to prevent the scheduled fee reductions for Medicare providers 
is shameful and our failure to act has real consequences.
  Seventeen percent of the people I represent are on Medicare, roughly 
114,000 people. Many of these citizens live in communities where there 
are few doctors and few health care options. If the available doctors 
stop seeing Medicare patients, the health care access for all Kansans 
will be severely damaged. We must prevent the scheduled physician fee 
reductions from going into effect, and I encourage the Senate to take 
up necessary legislation now.
  Just this week, I received a letter from a family physician back 
home. He, of course, expressed his frustration with our current 
Medicare system. Here are his words:
  ``It is with mixed emotion that I am writing to inform you of my 
intent to leave my family medicine practice. I have reached the point 
where I am no longer willing to expose myself or my family to the risk 
of having to rely upon an increasingly unreliable and poor source of 
income, Medicare. As a small business with 12 employees, I don't have 
the margin to absorb others' incompetence or our government's 
capricious reimbursement. I am not willing to be a pawn in an 
ideological chess match in Washington, and therefore as of today I will 
no longer accept Medicare patients.
  ``I am considering a position in an economically booming region in 
another State that is nearly 95 percent private pay. What physician 
worth their salt will continue in a system that undervalues the work 
they do for a patient population that is the most complex and the most 
time demanding?
  ``Congress and the Medicare system are taking advantage of good-
intentioned physicians who are more interested in caring for patients 
and upholding and honoring the Hippocratic Oath than lining their 
pockets. Even now, writing this letter to you, I feel a sense of guilt 
as though I am betraying my Medicare patients. I have realized, 
however, that it is not I that have betrayed the elderly, rather 
Congress.''
  When doctors close their practices, it creates a gap that is almost 
impossible for us in rural communities to fill. Congress must 
understand that we have a responsibility in making physicians want to 
continue to practice medicine, to not give them the reason to walk out 
their clinic or hospital doors and never look back. Congress needs to 
look closely at our role in these trends and make sure we are not 
encouraging this situation by playing politics with people's health 
care and their lives.
  I hope that the Senate will pass legislation this week that can keep 
our vital health care system in place and protect our most vulnerable 
citizens.

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