Health Care

Floor Speech

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Mrs. LUMMIS. I do, and I thank the gentleman from Missouri for allowing me to. I was sitting in my office in the Longworth Building listening to this discussion, and my fellow freshman colleague, the physician from Louisiana, was talking earlier about Medicare and the effects of $350 billion of waste, fraud and abuse coming out of Medicare to magically fund a big portion of the proposed health care bill that Ms. Pelosi and her colleagues have prepared for us.

Mr. AKIN. Let's talk a little bit. What part of Medicare did that come out of? Did you happen to notice that? I mean, is there any line item that says waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare that you can just take money out of? How do we do that?

Mrs. LUMMIS. You know, there certainly isn't. And the most amazing thing to me about listening to that discussion is, when I was home for the August work period, I met with the physicians and administrators at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, Wyoming. They told me that they are currently reimbursed at 37 cents on the dollar for their actual out-of-pocket costs of treating a Medicare patient.

Mr. AKIN. Let me stop. That is an incredible number. In other words, we have a doctor like Dr. Gingrey, Dr. Fleming, and they accept a patient on Medicare. It costs them $1 to provide some type of medical care. They are getting reimbursed how much? $1.50?

Mrs. LUMMIS. No.

Mr. AKIN. $1?

Mrs. LUMMIS. No.

Mr. AKIN. How much?

Mrs. LUMMIS. Thirty-seven cents.

Mr. AKIN. Thirty-seven cents out of a dollar. So they are losing money on a Medicare patient.

Mrs. LUMMIS. They are losing roughly two-thirds of every dollar that they spend.

Mr. AKIN. So we are going to cut $500 billion out of Medicare and expect doctors to continue to do that? I don't understand how that is supposed to work.

Mrs. LUMMIS. It is a stunning departure from rational thinking.

Mr. AKIN. I think that is a great phrase, ``a stunning departure from rational thinking.'' You know, I think we are seeing a little more of that than we need down here. You are such a nice person. That is a nice way to say being stupid, isn't it? In Missouri, we are not very good at explaining things. I wish I was as politically correct as you are.

I see my good friend, Congressman King from Iowa, over here, and he is having way too much fun. I think we have to let Steve have a chance at chatting with us for a minute.

Congressman King, somebody who is known for calling things plain and straight talk, I appreciate your midwestern perspective. Please join us.

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