[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3849]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                         THE HEALTH ACT OF 2011

  (Mr. LATTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LATTA. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5, the Help 
Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2012, which 
also contains H.R. 452, the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act of 
2012. I'm a cosponsor of both of these very important pieces of 
legislation.
  The Independent Payment Advisory Board, IPAB, must be repealed, as 
this board will have extremely negative consequences on American 
families' health care. This board of unelected members will be making 
decisions for tens of thousands of Medicare patients. The power to 
control the purse strings will give enormous power to control what type 
of care a patient receives. I strongly believe that physicians and 
patients are in the best position to decide their own health care, and 
IPAB must be repealed.
  In addition, the HEALTH Act is absolutely needed. I've been working 
on medical malpractice issues since my time in the Ohio General 
Assembly when we passed successful tort reform. The current system is 
broken and places a $210 billion burden on our Nation's health system 
each year. H.R. 5 will bring savings for patients and doctors, and is 
an important step in helping to make sure our Medicare liability system 
works in this country.
  I support both bills.

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