[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6387-6388]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  HEALTH CARE FOR MEDICAID RECIPIENTS

  (Mr. CASSIDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, it's always fun to listen to the debate 
because clearly both sides are saying the same thing but disagreeing to 
it. I am actually referencing some of the things we're speaking of.
  We are told that the health care bill is going to create jobs in 
addition to its primary goal of increasing access to quality care at an 
affordable price. Now, a component of this is Medicaid, insuring 21 
million people across the Nation, a combined Federal-State program 
where the State pays part, the Feds pay part. The problem is that 
Medicaid is not providing access to quality care at an affordable 
price.
  There were two articles from the New York Times recently. One speaks 
of how people with Medicaid cannot get in to see a physician. They have 
to go to

[[Page 6388]]

the emergency room because physicians don't see Medicaid patients 
because it pays so little and it has so much hassle. The other is about 
how a woman with cancer in Michigan cannot find a physician--she also 
has Medicaid--because the problem is it pays so little, has so much 
hassle, all the other things we expect in a bureaucracy. And lastly, 
regarding cost, despite paying less so it doesn't give access to 
quality care, according to articles in Politico, it's going to increase 
the deficit by $1 billion for States like California.

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