Medicare Access And CHIP Reauthorization Act Of 2015
Floor Speech
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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I thank Mr. Pallone and Mr. Levin, our ranking members on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee, for their leadership and cooperation on this issue, as well as Chairman Ryan of the Ways and Means Committee and Chairman Upton of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
This is a day that we really have to salute our staff. They have worked so hard. It was my honor to work with Speaker Boehner on this important issue to do what we came here to do--to legislate. We are the legislative branch. We are legislating. We are working together to get the job done for the American people.
From Speaker Boehner's staff, I especially want to thank Charlotte Ivancic, who was extremely knowledgeable about health policy and was smart and fair about all of this. Wendell Primus of my staff was a strong voice for the concerns of seniors and children and the rest in those discussions.
Ed Grossman and his team at House Legislative Counsel--for all the ideas that Members churned up, Legislative Counsel had to translate that into what the possibility was for legislative language. They worked 24/7, weekends included.
Megan O'Reilly, Bridget Taylor, and the technical teams at CMS and HHS worked 24/7 for many days.
Holly Harvey and Tom Bradley and the team at the Congressional Budget Office, having to score every change of idea that we may have had.
Again, the staff both at the Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee on both sides of the aisle, I take the time to recognize them because in recognizing them, I really want to recognize the work that is done by staff on all that we do here.
All of these individuals, again, have been working 18-hour days for the past few weeks, and we thank them for their tireless hard work.
This package includes many important victories for low-income seniors, children, and families. There are many reasons to support this bill, four of which I would like to point out:
We are strengthening the quality of care for many older Americans with additional funding for initiatives that help low-income seniors pay their Medicare part B premiums.
We have added almost $750 million for training more urgently needed nurses and physicians.
We have secured the health care of poor children with a 2-year extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program at the same rates set by the Affordable Care Act. Many people wanted more, as did I. That does not diminish the importance of the 2-year extension.
Lastly, we have secured critical funding for community health centers over the next 2 years, expanding a vital investment in underserved communities.
I am proud to rise in support of this historic, bipartisan package. It represents bold, necessary progress for our country. And it is not just about enabling our seniors to see their doctors, which was the original purpose of the bill. It is about how we can increase performance and lower cost; it is about value, not volume of service; it is about quality, not quantity of procedures; and this legislation is transformative in how it rewards the value, not the volume. So I am proud to support it.
At long last, we will replace the broken SGR formula and transition Medicare away from a volume-based system toward one that rewards values, ensures the accuracy of payments, and improves the quality of care.
With this legislation, we give America's seniors confidence that they will be able to see the doctors they need and the doctors they like, liberating them and their families from the shadow of needless, annual crises.
And as a woman, during Women's History Month, I am very proud of what the legislation means to women and their health issues.
So for these and other reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``aye.''
It was my privilege to work with the Speaker in a bipartisan way on this legislation. I hope it will be a model of things to come.
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