[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25794]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mrs. LUMMIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to express what is my greatest 
hope and my greatest concern in 1 minute.
  My greatest concern is that, by using Medicare as a means to fund 
this new program, you will be taking more money away from rural areas 
that are already inadequately reimbursed by Medicare for their costs. 
For example, in Casper, Wyoming, the hospital is only reimbursed at 32 
cents on the dollar for Medicare actual costs.
  We are underreimbursing now and having to subsidize Medicare. The 
government is not meeting its obligation to Medicare. My greatest hope 
is that Democrats will read the 40-plus Republican bills to reform 
health care and choose the best among them and bring those to the floor 
so we can discuss them and debate them.
  We have over 40 bills that you can use for great ideas to reform 
health care in a way that will make it available to all Americans.

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