OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014

Floor Speech

Date: March 31, 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Entitlements and the Safety Net Health and Health Care

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Mr. President, I am disappointed that we were unable to come together to permanently repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, and instead passed a 1-year patch to prevent reimbursement cuts for physicians from going into effect in April.

The bill the Senate passed tonight averts a 24 percent cut to Medicare payments that would start tomorrow, April 1. Given the potential impact of such a large cut to Medicare patients and to their physicians, I supported this measure.

While a patch is not the permanent solution many of us have sought, I voted for it because we must act to prevent these cuts from taking place. Having averted these cuts, I will continue to work for a bipartisan solution to permanently repeal the SGR.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to achieve this goal.

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