[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25796]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 MEDICARE CUTS WOULD IMPACT OUR SENIORS

  (Mr. BOUSTANY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, as a heart surgeon, I saw patients 
firsthand in our current government-run programs, like Medicare, who 
lacked real access to a doctor, leaving them out of the system. Many of 
our Medicare patients and seniors out there know exactly what I am 
talking about.
  So I ask the Democratic leadership, how can you cut $500 billion, a 
half-trillion dollars, from Medicare, and not hurt access and quality 
for our seniors? I also ask our Democratic leadership, how can you 
create a government-run health care takeover that fails to control 
costs or improve quality?
  We can do better. I know we can do better. We can achieve commonsense 
solutions in a bipartisan way. But the current Democratic-led bills do 
not do that. They do not constitute meaningful reform.
  We need to work together to strengthen Medicare, to put it on a 
better and sounder financial footing, to ensure that it will be there 
for our seniors when they need health care. We need to lower costs for 
all seniors, and for all Americans, for that matter, by increasing 
competition in the health insurance marketplace, promoting wellness 
programs and limiting frivolous lawsuits.
  Let's put the doctor and patient back in control of health care.

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