Medicare Improvements For Patients And Providers Act Of 2008 - - Veto Message From The President Of The United States

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN of Kansas. I thank the gentleman from Louisiana.

Madam Speaker, I voted in favor of H.R. 6331 and will vote to override the President's veto today. This is a very important piece of legislation for those of us who care strongly about our communities and their survival. And in rural America the delivery of health care is in jeopardy. The pharmaceutical aspect of this bill is one that perhaps has been understated. But those of us who care about the community pharmacists believe that the direction that this bill provides in requiring a timely payment through prompt payments under part D and the elimination for 1 year of the average manufacturers' price, which will undercut the ability of pharmacists to deliver prescription drugs under Medicaid, and the elimination of bidding for durable medical equipment is awfully important.

Much of the focus is upon the elimination of the 10 percent reduction in reimbursement to our physicians for Medicare. And I want to quote from one of my physicians back home in Kansas in a letter to me dated July 7. ``It is with mixed emotions that I am writing to inform you of my intent to leave my Family Medicine practice in Kansas. I have reached the point where I am no longer willing to expose myself or my family to the risk of having to rely upon an increasingly unreliable (and poor) source of income; specifically Medicare. I do not have the margin to absorb others' incompetence or our government's capricious reimbursement. I am no longer willing to be a pawn in the ideological chess match in Washington and therefore as of today I will no longer accept Medicare patients.

``I am at a point in my career where I must consider my family as well as my retirement. We once again have been threatened with an across-the-board 10 percent cut. Congress and the Medicare system are taking advantage of good-intentioned physicians who are more interested in caring for patients and upholding and honoring the Hippocratic Oath than lining their pockets. I feel a sense of guilt, as though I am betraying my Medicare patients. I have realized, however, that it is not I that has betrayed the elderly, rather Congress.''

I think it's important for us to move forward with this legislation. It's a matter of survival for the delivery of health care to many seniors, particularly those who come from places like I do where the population is Medicare dependent. And I appreciate the gentleman from Louisiana giving me the opportunity to express my position and to indicate once again that I will override President Bush's veto.

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