[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4553-4554]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
            THE MEDICARE ACCESS AND CHIP REAUTHORIZATION ACT

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, moments ago, the House 
passed a historic piece of bipartisan legislation that will put an end 
to the flawed Medicare sustainable growth rate, the so-called doc fix, 
and extend

[[Page 4554]]

the Children's Health Insurance Program.
  For more than a decade, Congress has used a bandaid to address the 
sustainable growth rate, rather than offering permanent reforms. Having 
served in a nonprofit health care setting for nearly three decades, I 
experienced firsthand the uncertainty and the anxiety that patients and 
their providers experienced annually, wondering if draconian cuts to 
reimbursements would occur. This bipartisan, permanent solution will 
replace the sustainable growth rate with a more stable system that will 
ensure our seniors do not lose access to their healthcare providers.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation is by no means perfect, but it is a 
move in the right direction for children, seniors, and our medical 
providers.

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